Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time_C_ Happily Ever After Begins Here_013022

Deacon Tom Writes,

“Happily Ever After Starts Here!”

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

How easy it is to say, “I love you.” How easy it was for the people of Nazareth “to speak highly of Jesus” and to render a favorable opinion of him upon his returning home. It’s quite a different matter altogether to act with love toward the people we say we love or to take to heart what those we speak highly of are telling us, especially when what they are saying rubs us the wrong way. Jesus is the Poster Child par excellent when it comes to how things change when the message you are speaking is rejected and resented by your audience. Our world is challenge by this new reality tin which we only listen to those with whom we agree. The gospels tell us that Jesus experienced this same attitude one that eventually led him to the cross. Are we here in our time now at some new frontier in interpersonal relationships where we circle ourselves exclusively with like-minded people? Are we now going to sever our relationship with organizations because they don’t hold fast to our perspective? Cut off those family members who have a different political, economic or religious belief than we do? A different sexual orientation, racial or ethnic heritage? Who could ever have imagined that you could start a near riot simply by mentioning the word “mask” or announce at a school board meeting that “vaccines are mandated”? The cartoon character Pogo was right when he said, “We have met the enemy and he is us! Welcome to the new world, everyone!

Such division and bitterness stands contrary to what St. Paul writes to the Corinthians about the virtue of love. Couples often chose these words for their wedding ritual because they capture our heart’s desire for genuine, selfless love. “Love is patient, love is kind” Paul says. If he were to stop there, we would struggle mightily to put just those words into practice. We would have to work very hard day and night to show those we say we love a patient love, a kind love. But Paul doesn’t stop with those two qualities. He goes on to say that there is much more to love than patience and kindness. He probes the very essence of love to reveal that at its very core, to love means to surrender oneself completely to the other; to put the will and happiness of the other before our very own. Love, Paul says, “is not pompous or rude; is not inflated and doesn’t seek its own interest; it is not quick-tempered nor does it brood over injury. Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing; it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Love, then, is so much more than simply saying, “I love you.” It is the journey of a lifetime to a place we nearly always choose not to go: it is a place of complete surrender. It is diametrically opposed to the notion of personal freedom. One does not get there simply by saying “I love you.” Rather it is the work of a lifetime; it is a slow process of letting go, of dying to self, of subjecting our very self-will to the will of others. And, should we really give some thought to this, we can’t love to the depth that Paul describes by ourselves. We need God’s grace to make any progress at all; left to ourselves, we could easily act like the people of Jesus’ hometown who hear his “gracious” words and then, moments later, try to push him over the cliff. They just weren’t prepared to hear how abundant and liberating God’s love is and that his love goes out to all who search for him. Nor are those, I’m afraid, who praise God on Sunday and ignore his call to love one another Monday through Saturday.

There is little doubt that God’s love remains a mystery. We will never completely understand the depth of divine love in this life, but we can experience a glimmer of it through the love of others. The deeper our love becomes, the more selfless our love will be and the closer we will come to the source of that love who is God and the better we will be at sharing that love with one another.


Enjoy the day!
Deacon Tom

Image credit: Tom Casey - Words of Wisdom to Bride and Groom, Corolla, N.C.