Word to the Wise
Sunday, February 3, 2013 - 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Jer 1:4-5, 17-19; 1 Cor 12:31-13:13 or 13:4-13; Luke 4:21-30]Love is patient, love is kind. Love is not jealous...
I really do not have to put more than a very few words from today's second scripture for most pew-folks to recognize it. They may even have chosen the passage for their own wedding! Perhaps St. Paul's description of love matched their own at the time? Does it now? I heard it at the wedding I celebrated recently, and probably at a majority of the weddings I have celebrated over the years! But St. Paul is not just talking about marital love or romantic love. He is speaking of a gift that God gives to all of us! It is a challenging gift to "open" and enjoy for a lifetime, even if it is used only for a few minutes with someone we'll never see again!
There is a very poignant scene in the musical, OLIVER, where little Oliver is alone and trying to escape from the orphanage and sings, "Where is love?" I have had many people ask that same question to me when they suffered the breakdown of a special relationship. But the scope is much larger. Those suffering from hunger, homelessness, political oppression, violence here and everywhere could be asking the same question. Where is love?
In the midst of the act of violence that killed him, Jesus asked his Father to forgive his killers! In laying down his life for us, he expressed ultimate love. In our very "me-oriented" culture, the challenge to love others as ourselves is very difficult. I challenge parents and godparents at baptisms to teach the child how to give and receive love because that will impact everything else that child does as it grows. If we want to ask Oliver's question: "Where is love?" the answer lies inside each of us, but the gift often lies unopened, or if opened, unused. A student parishioner of mine once said after a long discussion about the challenges of being a faithful Christian, "It's all about the love, isn't it?" Yes! AMEN
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