+ September 17, 2014 Wednesday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time Reading 1 1 COR 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 PS 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 skillfully, 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. Gospel LK 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.” Todays Meditation 1 Corinthians 12:31–13:13 September 17, 2014 Saint Robert Bellarmine, Bishop and Doctor of the Church Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13:8) Paul’s beautiful hymn of charity, as this passage is often called, portrays a mature love filled with spiritual vitality. It is not the textbook definition of love that we find in the dictionary but rather a soaring hymn that expresses what Christian love looks like as it is lived out day by day. It is patient and kind rather than irritable; it serves the needs and interests of others, not insisting on its own way; it is not quick-tempered; and it doesn’t brood over injuries. It’s important to know that Paul wrote this vigorous call to love to the Corinthians, a community that was plagued by division, competition, and immorality. He urged them to let the love of Christ that they had experienced so powerfully at their conversion overcome their faults and heal their lack of unity. By appealing to love—especially to the example of Jesus, who taught what it means to love from the cross—Paul appealed to their deepest desires and offered them the one sure way to overcome their sins and failings. There’s little doubt that Paul had his own life in mind, too, as he wrote about growing from childish ways into mature faith (1 Corinthians 13:11). Paul had started out as a hotheaded young Pharisee who persecuted Christians. It took some time, even after his conversion, for him to calm down. But over time, he grew into a committed lover of Jesus and a force for reconciliation and unity. It’s as we yield to God’s love, just as Paul learned to yield, that we grow into a deeper love for the Lord and for one another. This mature love embraces God’s ways and binds us together in unity. No longer children, we “grow in every way into him who is the head.” We begin to live as part of his body, joined together so that we are no longer concerned only for ourselves but also for helping the whole Church as it “builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:13, 15, 16). We can walk in Christian charity—if we keep walking with Christ. “Jesus, light the fire of your love in my life! Burn away all the dross in my heart, so that I can love you with a pure love and love others with your own love aflame in me.”
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 04:19:46 +0000
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