Last week, Lorenzo and Alicia went up to Angel’s Camp to meet with the priest who will preside at their wedding. He gave them a book of possible readings that they can choose from. Sunday’s second reading from the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians is one of the choices they can make. Speaking about the qualities associated with love, it becomes for the bride and groom, and indeed all witnesses, an excellent measuring stick for our fidelity to all that love demands.
The most excellent example of love is, of course, Jesus. By surrendering the glory of heaven and becoming one of us He begins to demonstrate what true love is all about. He continues by His selfless ministry, which finally culminates on the Cross and His ignominious death. For us it is difficult to fathom imitating that kind of love, and we often give up before we really even give it a shot.
Paul's letter offers us another set of criteria, which are a reflection of divine Love, no less difficult to accomplish, but seemingly more within our reach. Let’s consider just one: "Love is kind." If we are willing to critically evaluate our behavior and motivations against those three little words and honestly discover that we measure up, then the other more familiar three little words will not be like mere clashing cymbals ringing discordantly with disturbing noise, but instead pure and beautiful because they'll be on pitch -- they will be true.
All I can think of when reading the Gospel is how some of us react to priests who preach things from the pulpit that don’t sit right with us, or make us feel like we’re not doing enough. We don't go so far as to drive them to the cliff to push them over, but our thoughts might be less than charitable. Or how we sometimes expect more and more from them week after week, not remembering that, like us, they can become dry in their presentations. I think we need to cut them some slack, especially in this Year for Priests—after all, they’re only human.
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