Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year C
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Saint Paul’s hymn to Charity which we just heard, is one of the most beautiful passages in Sacred Scripture, indeed, as well as in all of literature throughout history. This passage is often read at Weddings, but Saint Paul was not writing about romantic, or even married love. His focus was on Christian Charity — that is — how we as Christians are meant to love one another.
Going into such detail, poetic though his words be, Saint Paul knows of the difficulties and complexities of human love, especially as we strive for holiness in the hard work of living in the Kingdom of God. In this passage, Saint Paul teaches about Charity from three points of view:
+the need for this gift and its superiority over other virtues
+its features and practical expression
+the fact that Charity endures forever and will accompany us in Heaven
Let’s look at these three elements separately, to gain further insight.
The Need for, and superiority of Love
Charity is so great a gift that without it, other gifts have neither meaning nor value. To make this point clear, Saint Paul mentions those Gifts of the Holy Spirit that are thought to be exceptional:
+the gift of tongues
+knowledge
+heroic actions, including martyrdom
None of these, he says, are as valuable as Charity. He makes the striking statement, “If I have not love, I am nothing.” This means that it is our capacity to love that makes us human and separates us from the rest of Creation. Oh, I know that my dog loves me in her own canine fashion — and I hope to see her in heaven — but it’s just different, isn’t it? It is our ability to love that makes us “created in the image and likeness of God,” because, as Saint John tells us: “God is love.”
Saint José Maria Escrivá described Charity thus: “Our love is not to be confused with sentimentality or mere good fellowship. Rather it means living in peace with our neighbor, venerating the image of God that is found in each and every person, and doing all that we can to get them, in turn, to contemplate that image and choose to turn to Christ.”
Saint Paul’s Presentation of the Features and Practical Expression of Love
He writes:
Love is patient, love is kind,
love is not jealous or boastful,
it is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way,
it is not irritable or resentful.
Sentiments lovely and true. However, people are often impatient, unkind, jealous, boastful, arrogant, rude, insisting on having one’s own way, irritable and resentful… especially among those with whom we live most closely in marriage and family life. Charity and the virtues it engenders can disappear quickly in the struggle for constant and consistent love.
Love and charity in their depth seem to escape definition. Among the thousands of poems and love songs out there, one song came to my mind when preparing this. It is a song written by John Denver in 1981, and sung as a duet with Placido Domingo entitled, “Perhaps Love.” In it they sing of the human struggle to define — or even begin to understand — human love. Consider these words from the refrain:
“Love to some is like a cloud,
to some as strong as steel.
For some, a way of living,
for some, a way to feel.
And some say love is holding on,
and some say letting go.
And some say love is everything,
and some say they don’t know.”
Saint Paul alludes to the difficulty in defining love, even after he described it so beautifully, as he writes later in his hymn about Charity, “Now I know in part, in Heaven I shall understand fully.”
For all this uncertainty, there is one great philosopher who defined love in a single sentence. Saint Thomas Aquinas wrote: “To love is to will the good of the Other, as Other.” And we could add to this: “…to the point of self-sacrifice.” Just look at the Crucifix — there is self-sacrificing love in its fullness.
Love is a choice, then, not a feeling or emotion. When young couples preparing for their Wedding, choose this Scripture passage, I inform them of Aquinas’ definition and encourage them to think about this: the primary focus for every married couple is to get your spouse into Heaven.
Finally, Saint Paul Speaks of the Eternal Quality of Love
He writes:
+“Love never ends;+as for prophecies, they will pass away;
+as for the gift of tongues, they will cease;
+as for knowledge, it will pass away.”
He even writes of the superiority of Love among the Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity. He writes: “Fatih, hope and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.” Why is love the greatest of the three? It will accompany us to Heaven where the other virtues are no longer needed. In heaven, Faith will be answered… Hope will be fulfilled… Love alone will last for eternity.