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...
By the time Saint Paul has said what love is not, I'm not sure he knows what love is. He says a lot about what it's not, and his few positive statements --...rejoices with the truth.... bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things" -- are rather vague.
I think he'd cheerfully reply like many of us, "I know what it is when I see it." But that certainty is not always reliable as trusted loved ones fail, abandon, and betray us. Many people survive these disappointments and learn to love again. They decide with the poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson, 'T'is better to love and lose than never to love at all."
Few believe that "Love means never having to say I'm sorry." If the Bible says anything about love it insists that we must continually say, "I am sorry for all my sins," The faithful repent, turn back to the Lord, and welcome everyone else who has also sinned and returned -- seven times a day! All four gospels begin with the preaching of Saint John the Baptist and his "baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins." Even the sinless Jesus repented because he is one of us and shares our guilt and its punishment. There is no love without atonement and forgiveness.
When love is forced to deal with the realities of failure, abandonment, and betrayal it resolutely refuses to "brood over injury" or "rejoice over wrongdoing." But, because love embraces truth, it does not forget sin. History can be neither changed nor ignored, and it should not be forgotten, but it can be blessed. Even a cross can be a memento of sin, forgiveness, and grace.
We know that forgiveness begins with God's gracious mercy to us, and our bearing all things, believing all things, hoping all things, and enduring all things is nothing more than imitation of God's actions. In dealing with us, He has borne all things, believed all things, hoped all things, and endured all things.
We do well to think on these things, for even the thought of God's sacrifice for us teaches us the meaning of that mysterious word, and brings us to penance.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.