January 31, 2010

4.c.2010.stmb.love

Jer 1:4-5, 17-19; 1 Cor 12:21-13:13; Luke 4:21-30

(Based on Celebration Magazine Reflections)

        There is much talk about love in today’s second reading. Probably this is one of the reasons why many couples choose to express their own new love for one another by having Paul’s lyrical celebration of love to be read at their wedding. The words of Paul from his first letter to the Corinthians take them to that perfect place where love endures to conquer all with its grace and magnanimity. Exactly the way they feel on the day of their wedding.

Only later, however the happy couple will learn what it means to write the verses to this song of love with their own lives. They will definitely be called upon to prove their promise to “bear all things, believe all things, hope all things and endure all things” is more than words, more than feeling.

·      Love is to be steady when circumstances become unstable, when jobs are lost, or when home is robbed, when the future seems frighteningly insecure.

·      Love is to be faithful despite the temptation to stray.

·      Love is to be ready to forgive and to make valiant efforts at forgetting the hurtful aspects of life together.

·      Life is to be a sure shelter against danger.

·      Love is to be a rock to hold onto when the wedding vows about sickness and health, for richer and for poorer become everyday realities.

·      Love is to held out even when nest eggs are forced to hatch too soon.

·      Love survives when old age claims looks and memory and fervor.

Love is in the decisions we make, and the harder the decision, in spite of the feelings, the greater the love. Every couple who have been married for a while knows that.

But it is not only marital relationship which gives us opportunity to understand what true love is about.

Prophet Jeremiah, although never married, expresses that knowledge in today’s’ first reading writing the words which we have heard while realizing the failure of his mission. He had spoken God’s word for more than 20 years, but to no avail. No one seemed to listen. No one seemed to learn. They even tried to kill him to silence him.

So Jeremiah, a battle-scarred veteran who has paid the price of daring to listen to God’s word writes his own words remembering his own calling as a prophet. He reluctantly accepted the mission from God and remained faithful to it for all his life because of love which he had for God and His people.

Love for God and for God’s people would also lead Jesus to persevere in proclaiming a Gospel that was often regarded as an unpopular challenge to unwilling listeners. Love led Jesus to suffer loneliness, rejection, personal injury and even death for the sake of the mission he had come to fulfill. Love empowered him when his own rejected him. Love motivated him to share the gift of God’s compassion and love with those who were considered not God’s chosen ones.

Yes, there is much talk about love in today’s readings. Jeremiah, St. Paul and Jesus knew what love is and they knew that Love is in the decisions we make.