Wednesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 445​

Love is patient, love is kind.

It is not jealous, love 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.

Today's reading from I Corinthians may be the most popular of all his writings, at least in our time. (Theologians have usually preferred his epistles to the Romans and Galatians.) As Europe built a civilization following the collapse of the Roman Empire; and philosophers, theologians and artists discovered the beauty, dignity and worth of human life they became more fascinated with human love. There is a wildness in the human spirit that does not want to be tamed, disciplined or dominated. In Saint Francis' time troubadours traveled from village to city, from cathedral to castle singing the praises of romantic love. Lovers often found their delight in someone other than the family-approved, church-appointed spouse.

Modern troubadours especially celebrate the paean to love in Romans 13; it's usually heard during a wedding mass. But Saint Paul was certainly not reflecting on erotic or even romantic love when he wrote the passage. It's about that powerful grace which binds the Church together.

Perhaps I've said this before, my own particular credo:

1. First, unless you belong to a Church don't tell me you love the Lord. The Christian who isolates can love only an idea of the Lord. Without the immediate contact of our sacramental church, the Lord is only a fading memory, sterile and corrupt. 
2. Second, unless you really love the Lord, you cannot belong to a Church." Anyone who does not love the Lord with her entire mind, soul, body and strength will not be able to endure the challenges, frustrations and disappointments of belonging to a Church.

If you don't belong to a Church you're loving only a god of your imagination, an image or ideal, a theory of what Jesus should be like. It may be a popular image of "God," a shadowy figure who appears on the edges of a secular culture. It may resemble the God of one's religious childhood, a memory of how you once knew the Lord, or of the God your parents or grandparents worshiped.

Some will insist their god is the same as the Biblical god, forgetting that the Bible was written by and belongs to the Church. It's our manual! Inspired reading of the Bible may lead someone back to communion with God's people, but if it doesn't it is not the road less traveled. 

It's an easy mistake we all make. Just as I often love my impressions of someone until, one day, I suddenly realize "You're not the person I thought I knew." I may be disappointed by the discovery, or elated; but in either case I realize my ideas of this other person were seriously inaccurate. Relationships need frequent retooling, and crises occur often as we rediscover one another; 

So is it with the love of God. Take nothing for granted. 

Saint John insists upon our practicing Church in his First Letter:

Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall. Whoever hates his brother is in darkness; he walks in darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Hate is a strong word and we don't use it often in American language, but I would call "hate" anything which forces a member to be absent from the Assembly. Many people "come to the Lord" but then, like the seed planted in thin soil, decide it's easier to love Him at a safe distance from his Body the Church. Membership means too much adjustment, too much new learning, too much opening of one's heart to different kinds of people and new ways of thinking.  My impatience, judgmental attitudes, and indifference to others silently rebuke the pleasant feelings I might generate in prayer; even as daily prayer reminds me that I can be more generous, more patient and less opinionated.

In his fourth chapter, Saint John invites us:

Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God; everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.

Like marriage, membership in a real community provides a "reality check" for one's piety. It is a proving ground of the Holy Spirit. As we practice our faith, First Corinthians 13 provides both guidance for the Church, and a checklist for the Examination of one's Conscience.