Love is supreme
Introduction
St Paul gives us today his famous hymn to Christian love. It is greater than any charism, for charisms are vain if not rooted in love. Look at all the great things that love produces. Love will never pass, for all the rest is vowed to disappear.
Luke compares those who reject Christ and God’s prophets to spoiled children. Jews, and later the pagans for whom Luke writes, see John the Baptist and Jesus and the things they say and do, but they do not recognize these signs.
1 Reading1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Brothers and sisters:
Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.
But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues
but do not have love,
I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy
and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains,
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own,
and if I hand my body over so that I may boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
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.
Love never fails.
If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing;
if tongues, they will cease;
if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing.
For we know partially and we prophesy partially,
but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
When I was a child, I used to talk as a child,
think as a child, reason as a child;
when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror,
but then face to face.
At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
Responsorial Psalm 33:2-3, 4-5, 12 and 22
R. (12) Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Give thanks to the LORD on the harp;
with the ten stringed lyre chant his praises.
Sing to him a new song;
pluck the strings skilfully, with shouts of gladness.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
For upright is the word of the LORD,
and all his works are trustworthy.
He loves justice and right;
of the kindness of the LORD the earth is full.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Blessed the nation whose God is the LORD,
the people he has chosen for his own inheritance.
May your kindness, O LORD, be upon us
who have put our hope in you.
R. Blessed the people the Lord has chosen to be his own.
Alleluia John 6:63c, 68c
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Your words, Lord, are Spirit and life,
you have the words of everlasting life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel Luke 7:31-35
Jesus said to the crowds:
“To what shall I compare the people of this generation?
What are they like?
They are like children who sit in the marketplace and call to one another,
‘We played the flute for you, but you did not dance.
We sang a dirge, but you did not weep.’
For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine,
and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’
The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said,
‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’
But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”
Commentary
On several occasions, Jesus referred to children as models for how his followers should be. “Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt 18:3), he said. However, children also have their dark side. They can be very brutal in taunting their peers. They can be real bullies and control freaks. They sometimes insist on getting what they want, even if what they want is unfair to others.
Today Jesus compares the present generation to this dark side of children. Such people, who have already made their conclusions and judgments, are totally blind to the intimations of truth and, in their childish stubbornness, reject all contrary evidence. If John the Baptist was austere, they rejected his austerity as evil. But when Jesus went around eating and drinking with people, they accused him of being a glutton.
Am I childlike or childish in my relationship with God and my brothers and sisters?
Blessing
May love not be just something we are supposed to do, but something we do naturally and with great joy. May that love never end, with the blessing of almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!