“What is Love?”
By Amilee Bishop, Fiat Ventures
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This week’s Gospel is taken from the Gospel of Luke, but you might recognize the story as one we just heard this summer from the Gospel of Mark. It’s somewhat of an unusual story: usually we read about Jesus’s amazing works and teachings, and how people everywhere turned away from their lives of sin to follow him. But today we hear almost the opposite: Jesus preached in his own hometown, but the people didn’t accept him, and even became violent to the point of running him out of town. However, Jesus did not respond in anger, but recognized that “no prophet is accepted in his own native place”, and was able to pass through the angry mob to leave town.
Why did this happen? It seems so contrary to the will of God that his own son would be so ridiculed and distrusted, and it seems so super-human for Jesus to not get angry or frustrated. Well, both are the case.
How often are we like the people of this town, hearing God’s words and yet fighting against them, finding every reason to not listen, to not trust, and to drive Jesus away from us? It can often be the easier route to deny and ignore than to really listen and take to heart what Jesus teaches us. So how can we combat this? St. Paul gives us some great advice in his letter to the Corinthians.
You probably recognize this reading from First Corinthians (NOT “One Corinthians”…). “Love is patient, love is kind…” “So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” “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.” “If I have everything but do not have love, I have nothing”. Ringing a bell yet? Many of our Christian ideals about love stem from St. Paul’s teachings. Because of Jesus’s great love for all people, even those who persecuted him, he was able to respond in love to the angry mob in his hometown.
I encourage you to read this Sunday’s second reading from First Corinthians on your own time, and reflect on the ways in which you show and share God’s love with others. Maybe you will find there are areas of your life that lack love, where you respond in anger, frustration, jealousy, or rudeness, rather than in love, compassion, kindness, and patience. I guarantee you will find that St. Paul has some amazing ideas to share with us!
