The Measure
By Mike Lambrecht
In today’s second reading, we heard from Saint Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians. This reading should be familiar to most of us as it is a reading that is often used at weddings. However, because we have heard it so often, there is a danger of dismissing it out of mind without really reflecting on its meaning. Let’s take a look a closer look at this very important message that the Holy Spirit is trying to convey to us through St. Paul’s words. The reading begins, “Strive for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way.” In the beginning of chapter twelve, Saint Paul is
discussing these spiritual gifts. He speaks of wisdom, knowledge, faith, mighty deeds, prophecy, speaking in tongues, and so on. So, then, what is the more excellent way? St. Paul, of course, is speaking of love.
Love is a word that is often misused in our language and our society. We speak of loving food, loving sports, loving to camp, to hike, to ski, or whatever else there is that we enjoy in life. But this is not the true meaning of love. While I was in college, I knew a Dominican priest. He taught me philosophy and logic and used to make a big point of singling out anyone who used the word love in this manner. He always taught us that to love someone was “to will the good of another.” The Modern Catholic Dictionary agrees, love is “To will good to someone.” Strictly speaking, this meant that love could only exist between two individuals. Love involves a someone and not a something. It is an act of the will—not a feeling. Because of this, we are able to love an individual without liking them. In this way, we are able even to love our enemies.
Saint Paul tells us that love is so important for us that if we do not have it, we are nothing. How can love be so important? I once asked a very holy priest what this passage meant. He told me that love is the measure of how we will be judged. He connected the words of St. Paul to the words of Christ when he is asked what the greatest commandment is. Jesus tells us that the first is “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”1 He then goes on to tell us, “The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”2 Jesus is absolutely right. When looking at the Ten Commandments, the greatest commandment in the law sums up the first three. The next seven are summarized by love of neighbor. By truly following these two simple commandments of love, we are able to follow “The whole law and the prophets.”3
Perhaps while watching television we have seen someone holding up a sign that reads “John 3:16.” The passage reads, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” Saint Paul also wrote, “But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.”4 God truly loves us beyond anything that we can imagine. He wants what is best for us. His will is that we should spend eternity with Him in heaven.
We were created with free will so that we would have the capacity to love. Let us be mindful that love “is not jealous…rude…seek it’s own interests…brood over injury…rejoice over wrongdoing.” Let us all strive to exercise that great gift by loving God and our neighbor. In doing so, we will please God and help to build a better world in which to live. For “Charity is the soul of the holiness to which all are called: it ‘governs, shapes, and perfects all the means of sanctification.’”5
1 Matthew 22:37 2 Matthew 22:39
3 Matthew 22:40 4 Romans 5:8
5 CCC 826