From yesterday’s Mass reading:
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.
1 Corinth 12:31-13:7
As I read this reading at our monthly Mass at a local nursing home yesterday I was struck with a vision of these words of St. Paul being lived out right before me. Among the participants in Mass yesterday was two old men, probably in their 80’s, visiting their wives who are residents at the nursing home.
I believe the women are both from the Alzheimer’s unit. Neither appeared very in tune to their surroundings. They sat with very blank expressions on their faces, unmoving, just staring at the floor, if they were awake at all. And here were the men in their lives as loving and attentive as ever.
One man sat in total silence with his wife’s hand in his for well over an hour. The look of utter contentment on his face proving that whether or not she returned his loving gazes was completely irrelevant.
It was a welcome sight after reading recently the tragic story of a mother allegedly murdered her four year old daughter because she was “embarrassed” by the child’s disability (cerebral palsy).
Seeing the devotion of these two men I thought, truly this is the love Paul speaks of. No doubt these men have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, but only more love. This is the patient love that calls us to search outside ourselves, to seek not our own interests and bear all things for the sake of the other – to give until it hurts. In other words, this is the love of the Cross, the love of He Who is love itself.
This Sunday we celebrated the Triumph of the Holy Cross. This “triumph” is the triumph of the love of God for all mankind (Jn. 3:16). Through the Cross we not only have the consolation of Christ Himself accompanying us in our sufferings, but His passion and death offer us the the ultimate example of what it means to be truly loving and compassionate.
Instead of putting us out of our misery of suffering, death and sin by just wiping us off the face of the planet, Christ overcame sin and death by showing us that true love does not kill, but seeks to enter into the other’s sufferings so that the sufferer is no longer alone. This is an example we must follow in dealing with all of our loved ones who suffer.
Read Spe Salvi n. 38 and 39!!
Previous posts:
Love and Suffering
Love the Suffering
The Paradox of the Cross
Present Sufferings are as Nothing
The Consolation of the Christian Faith
The Value of Human Suffering