Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Love, The Greatest Gift


The Greatest Gift

1 Corinthians 13:1-2: 1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

          In the book called “Catholicism - A Journey To The Heart Of The Faith” by Father Robert Barron, there is a chapter called The Indispensable Men. This chapter is about Saints Peter and Paul and how they were so very instrumental in the foundation of our Catholic Faith and of all Christian Faiths.

          The quote from 1 Corinthians above is frequently used in wedding ceremonies, and I have heard it hundreds of times. Father Barron really made it hit home to me today as I read this chapter. To quote the author, “As I have said earlier, love is not primarily a feeling or emotion (although love can be accompanied by feelings and emotions); it is willing the good of other as other. When we love, we escape the black hole of our own clinging egotism and live for someone else; to love is to leap ecstatically out of self.”

          Further down the page, St. Paul concludes his observation with “Love never fails.”  1 Corinthians 13:8. Father Barron goes on to say “ In heaven, when we are sharing the divine life, even faith will end, for we will see and no longer merely believe; hope will end, for our deepest longing will have been realized. But love will endure, because heaven is love. Heaven is a state of being in which everything that is not love has been burned away. And that is why “faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthian 13:13.

          Pretty deep stuff, but isn’t that wonderful. It all makes sense to me now better than ever before. God Bless and make it a great day!

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