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What does love look like to
you? How would you describe it? In today's second reading Paul explains
to the Corinthians that no spiritual gift, however glamorous it may
seem, has any value without love. What good are prophecy, tongues,
interpretations, knowledge, even miracles, without love?
Paul goes on to describe what he means by love. It is patient, kind, not
jealous, not pompous, nor rude, never self-seeking, nor quick-tempered,
it never rejoices in wrongdoing, only in the truth. It bears all,
believes all, hopes all, and endures all. What a great insight Paul
shared with his beloved Corinthians and through them with us.
Love never fails. Love will not pass away. As children we may be
impressed with such other gifts as wealth, fame, power. As children in
Christ we may be impressed by the spiritual gifts, our own, or other
people's. But hopefully we will become adults in body, mind and spirit,
then we will put away those childish things and seek the gifts that will
last. What remains is faith, hope and love. And the greatest of
these is love.
This kind of love does not come easy. Many people at the synagogue in
Nazareth knew Jesus. They knew his mother and his family. But they did
not love him. Moreover they hated him when he pointed out their
contemptuous familiarity. We say that we love Christ. Then along comes
something that is very hard to accept and we say, "He didn't mean it
literally!" "Surely that doesn't apply to me!" We don't try to hurl him
from the nearest hill, but we can surely ignore him in the poor and in
the people we dislike.
How much Jesus must have loved those people in Nazareth. He lived with
them, played in their streets, prayed with them, grew up in their midst.
He loved them from the time he was a child. But he could do no great
works among them because they had so little faith.
He loves us too. He has lived with us, played and prayed with us.
Watched us grow up in love. If he can do no great work among us, is it
his fault or ours? Will he pass through our midst and walk away?
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