Love: seeking the good of the other, without expecting a return

Homily for 4^th Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C 2016

Jeremiah 1:4-5,17-19; 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13; Luke 4:21-30

Introduction

If today's second reading sounded familiar, it is probably because you have heard it read before, at several weddings.  Because it speaks about love, it is the go-to reading for many weddings.

This reading comes from Paul's first letter to the Corinthian Church, the most troublesome of his daughter-Churches.  This community had all kinds of divisions and factions.  Part of his answer to these problems, is to teach them about love.

Scripture and Theology

But the kind of love that Paul is describing, is not exactly the love we celebrate at weddings, but a much broader love.

The English language, with limited success tries to express three quite different feelings with this one word "love."

·        First, we use "love" to refer to that romantic feeling between a man and a woman, a desire and longing based in physical attraction.

·        Second, we speak of love to refer to friendship and general affection, even our desire for knowledge, art and other abstract things.

·        But the love that Paul is talking about is called by the Greek word, Agape.

Agape is "to will the good of another and to act concretely on that desire," expecting nothing in return.  It is more than erotic love; it is more than philosophical love.  This is the love that God has for us, the kind of love that Jesus displayed so generously on the cross, when he gave his life for the life of the world.  He willed our good, he actively sought our good and he gave it without expectation.

Paul dedicates several verses to describing this agape, this love.

·        "Love is patient, love is kind" Paul says.  True love waits and readily gives up righteous anger or outrage, for example towards someone who is slow or imperfect, because such love wills the good of that other person.

·        Paul says "love is not jealous." Someone once said: "when a friend of mine succeeds, something in me dies."  Does this feeling sound awfully familiar?  But as Paul continues to say: love is not pompous, not inflated, not rude; love does not seek its own interests.  Selfishness and love do not go together; selflessness is the true quality of love.

·        Paul goes on: "love is not quick-tempered, does not brood over injury." If we will the good of the other, we cannot hold grudges.  We cannot hold on to old wounds for decades, opening the scars once in a while to brood over them.  Agape requires forgiveness and letting bygones be bygones. 

·        "Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices with truth" says Paul.  The Germans have a word for this; schadenfreude is the morbid revelling in the pain of others.  Love cannot rejoice at another's misfortune, even the pain of our enemies.  Jesus already teaches as much when he says "love your enemies, and do good to those who persecute you" (Lk. 6:27).

·        Paul ends his description of love by saying: "love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things."  Such love does not pick and choose what is convenient, but what serves the good of another.

Besides describing the kind of qualities that make up Christian love, Paul also compares agape with the spiritual gifts, especially since the Corinthians were fighting over whose gifts were more important.

·        He says: "If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal."  In other words, even spiritual gifts like the gift of tongues, the gifts of prophecy, understanding and knowledge, mean nothing, if not used for the good of another.

·        Paul goes on to say: "If I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing."  Even faith, profound belief, does not count, if such belief does not will the good of others.  This can happen, for example, when of our deep faith goes to our heads and we automatically exclude others from God's love: the Protestants, Jews, and especially the Muslims.

·        "If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing," Paul says.  Imagine that!  Even charitable giving and martyrdom don't count if they are done for selfish reasons like showing off.  In true love, like Jesus, one has to give something of theirs, without expecting anything in return.

Christian Life

It is interesting that the reasons for which Paul wrote this letter, the problems of division in the Corinthian community are still with us today.

1.    In the first four chapters of First Corinthians, the problem is cliques and camps with some people saying, "I am for Paul," and others "I am for Apollos," instead of "I am for Christ."  Today we say: "I am for Pope Francis," "I am for Pope Benedict."  Or "I am for Father so-and-so" and not "Father-so-so."

2.    In Chapter 5 of the same letter, the problem is the community's failure to deal with a church member who is committing incest.  Aren't we guilty of similar indifference to the promiscuous license of our society today, even in small things like a lack of modesty in dress?

3.    In Chapter 6, church members are taking each other to pagan courts, participating in religious prostitution, and in Chapter 10 in pagan sacrifices.  Again aren't we often guilty of similar sins, when we substitute the values and practices of Christ, with the pagan ones of society, when we allow secular courts and the media, rather than Christ, to dictate our moral values? 

4.    In Chapter 11 the problem is segregation at the Eucharistic celebration,.  between rich and poor.  Thankfully, gone are the days when different classes and races were assigned different seats at Mass.  And yet we still have all kinds of subtle divisions in the Body of Christ even today! 

5.    Finally, in Chapter 12 the Corinthians are fighting over which spiritual gifts are more important; tongues, prophecy, knowledge?  Sadly, we too do this when we jealously protect our turf in the parish or church group.  Our society promotes this attitude, at school, at work – the zero-some game that always seeks to put down others, so that I can be lifted up, impressing whom we can, destroying whom we must.  For all these problems, love is the answer.

Conclusion

St. Paul concludes his lesson on love by saying: "Love never fails;" and then "So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love."

In other words, at the end of time, because we shall see God as he is, all other good things will pass away, but not love.

·        The spiritual gifts of prophecy, tongues and knowledge are only tools to help us see and know God.  Paul says: "At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face.  At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known."  We will not need them in heaven.

·        Even the two theological virtues of faith and hope will no longer be needed; when  I am seeing God face to face, there is no more need for faith; when I am seeing God face to face in heaven, there is no more need for hope.

But in heaven, love will still be needed, because God is love and because life with God means love.  

As the Baltimore Catechism taught us: "God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him forever in the next."  That's why we must start loving while we still can learn.