Word to the Wise
Sunday, January 30, 2022 - 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]S
I confess it is hard for me to read St. Paul's justly famous words about love without hearing wedding bells in my mind! But, as married couples soon discover, love is a lot bigger than a wedding! It is bigger than marriage. It is bigger than friendship. We have Jesus' word for that in the Sermon on the Mount: "Love your enemies! Do good to those who persecute you." [Matt. 5:43-48]. Hmmmm......that doesn't sound like warm, fuzzy, walking on air. touchy-feely stuff! We often confuse love with affection.
St. John of the Cross, the great Carmelite mystic, once wrote that "in the evening of life, what we shall be judged on is love." The parable of the last judgment in the Gospel According to Matthew gives some fairly basic actions that can express love: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, etc. But these actions can be done without love.
Ultimately, at least for a Christian (there may be equivalents in other religious traditions) love means seeing Christ in another person and responding accordingly. It is not necessarily what we "feel" or even say because we use the word "love" in speaking about food and pets and entertainment. I have wonderful friends who do not use the expression, "I love you!" but who show it in many other ways.
St. Paul's words can serve as a kind of examination of conscience for us all. What is our personal definition of "love," and how do we express it? Does it have anything at all to do with our faith in Christ? AMEN