Love is the Answer

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

One would be hard pressed to find someone who has not heard the passage from the First Letter to the Corinthians which we read for today's Eucharist. I can remember hearing it proclaimed in part on the Late Show with Johnny Carson many years ago when the wedding of Tiny Tim was broadcast over network television. It is probably the most popular choice of brides and grooms who prepare their own wedding texts.

Juxtaposed as it is with the passage from St. Luke's Gospel, this reading asks us whether we have reached spiritual maturity or whether we, like the people Jesus' generation, are still reacting to the word of God like children.

To be mature Christians, we must place our own needs after the needs of others. This is, in a nutshell, what St. Paul is preaching to the Corinthians. As we have read this letter over the past weeks, we have listened to St. Paul take exception to the rivalries that were present in that community. His paean to love is in stark contrast to the jealousies, envies, and status seeking which seem to characterize some within the Corinthian community. The only answer that covers all of these sins is that of love, the kind of love that subjugates our natural inclination to put ourselves first to the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves.