A LITANY OF LOVE

A MESSAGE FOR QUINQUAGESIMA

In England, the education system back in the 1960s assessed children at the age of eleven to determine what kind of secondary school they would attend.  There was an exam called the Eleven Plus, and depending on how well you scored, you would then be allocated to either a Secondary Modern School, where you would receive a basic but thorough education, while at the same time learning a trade; or to a Grammar School, either for boys or for girls as appropriate, where you would be prepared for higher learning in the universities.  Because in England there is no separation of State and Church, and the Anglican Church is the state religion, even in these public schools there was a mandatory religion class. At my very first such religion class at Keighley Boys’ Grammar School, our first homework was to learn, by heart, today’s Epistle word for word.

It goes to show what emphasis is placed by the Anglicans on this single chapter of St. Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians. Nor is the Church of England wrong in doing so, for it contains the single best description ever written of the virtue of charity, or love.  The Church founded by Christ, our own Catholic Church, has chosen this last Sunday before Lent to place this description before us, hoping to instill in us the importance of loving God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, as well as loving our neighbor as ourselves.  For it can be only with this love to inspire us that we will be fully prepared for Lent, with all its demands on us to sacrifice our own desires and appetites, and solely for the sake of the good Lord who made us.

In the course of today’s Epistle, we are shown the recipe for a successful lifestyle.  Such a life does not require riches or property; no power or great achievements are needed.  Instead, as the Beatles so succinctly put it, “all you need is love.”  Nor does St. Paul waste any ink on any other type of love than that which is pleasing to God.  There is no confusion here nor ambiguity in his use of the word “love” or “charity.”  We would do well to take the central verses of this chapter, and in our meditations apply them to our own lives, comparing our actions and lifestyle to what St. Paul describes: “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  Charity never faileth.”

I would venture to say that there are very few among us who can describe their own life as measuring up to these demands of charity.  And if we do fall short, should we not find in these words the inspiration to do better? This is why we read them just a couple of days before Lent begins, with all its vigors.  We are being asked today to adjust our lifestyle so that it may correspond more truly to the words of St. Paul.  That our love for God and neighbor will drive us to greater sacrifices for both, through prayer, fasting and almsgiving.  And then, as we become closer to perfect, that we may expel our temptations to sin, our attachment to the vain pleasures and material wealth of this world: for “when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.”  

This is the Church’s desire for us as we move forward into that dark part of the year where we must dwell on our sins, and on the terrible things suffered by the Son of God to deliver us from them.  May God bless us at this time, and, with his grace, inspire us to new heights and depths of love for him and our neighbor.