“... So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Reflections on the readings for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (January 30, 2022): JER 1:4-5,17-19; PS 71:1-2,3-4,5-6,15-17; 1 COR 12:31--13:13; LK 4:21-30
MISSIO offers “Mission In Scripture” to nurture a missionary heart, providing reflections on the missionary themes in the readings of Sundays, Feast Days and Holy Days.
Real love transforms us, our relationships, and the world. Real love is a choice -- and a gift from God.
The second reading for this Sunday is among the most thoughtful, beautiful and best known in the New Testament. It is St. Paul’s passage on love from his first letter to the Corinthians. It is often read at weddings and is certainly appropriate on such an occasion. However, the original context was actually a troubling situation that Paul was trying to address. He had founded the Christian community in Corinth that was made up of both converted Jews and Gentiles. Yet a few years after he left there, he received word that they were having problems from the rise of factions to disagreements about liturgy and even misunderstandings on some Christian beliefs -- issues with which we can still identify. He deals with these matters as strongly as we might expect. But in this chapter in particular Paul tries to get them to understand that underlying every spiritual gift must be love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:5-8).
Paul wants these people who mean so much to him to understand love. It is not simply a personal virtue, but one that is an essential part of every Christian community. We have a responsibility as individuals and as members of the Body of Christ to love one another -- and to love all. If we really love someone we make every effort to be generous, to be respectful; in other words to treat them the way we want to be treated. And this is so whether or not we like or agree with others. Real love transforms us, our relationships, and the world. Real love is a choice -- and a gift from God.
Suggested missionary action: Over the course of this next week, we can try to live up to St. Paul’s description of love each day. We can start by being a little more patient and a little kinder -- with others, and with ourselves.
