God loves each of us individually and we are each unique.
In today’s Gospel we hear St. Paul exhorting us to strive for the higher gifts, but if we are without love we are nothing. Love is the whole point of the gospel, it is the yardstick by which we will be measured and judged. Fr. Steve explains this well known passage from St. Paul’s, which outlines the characteristics of love.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it 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, in other words, God never fails and if we want to be steadfast in love we should draw love from God and share that love with others.
“Love,” says St. Thomas Aquinas, “is the effective willing of the true good of the other as other.”
Fr. Steve shares a reflection from Bishop Robert Barron regarding the Covington Catholic students at the Lincoln Memorial. In this article, Bishop Barron points out how much unjust condemnation raged around this event, and that that reaction is quite literally satanic. The Bishop also quoted from philosopher and social commentator René Girard, who spoke about the scapegoating mechanism in society, the instinct to pick on someone and blame them for whatever evils appear to be prevalent: “Where two or three are gathered, look for victims!”
Satan accuses and encourages us to accuse each other. But Jesus shows us how to love through the incident of the woman caught in adultery. He saw her in her dignity, not in her sin. He forgave and refused to condemn. He allowed himself to be scapegoated and crucified, yet still forgave his murderers.
...faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
