Spirituality of the Readings

Put Love First

I heard a song that poses the oldest Church doctrine in a new way.

I cannot give the full impact of this music to you without playing the song,* but I can say that it is composed and sung beautifully by Cyprian Consiglio, with a text by Gary Jon Denk based on I Corinthians, chapter 13. Its message may tell us what lay behind Peter’s words in Sunday’s Gospel.

Verse one goes this way: “I may know every hidden truth. I may have faith strong enough to move the mountains. But if I have no love I am nothing.”

What if you and I took this seriously? Stop now and review your day for a few moments. Were there times of competition? Vanity? Were you in a great rush to get many things done? Were you discouraged or even depressed? How did you treat people who crossed your path?

I myself went to an x-ray department once and found out that I had fractured a bone in my left foot in a fall a week and a half ago, and have been walking around on it all this time. Did I have love in this situation, or was it mainly pain and disappointment? Take a guess.

But we are not supposed to be perfect, are we? Daily life is something we have to endure, at least most days. There are many, many motivations in our lives and they must not be shut down in favor of some pious emotion.

“And now I will show you the best way of all," says St. Paul through Gary Denk; "love will never come to an end. So put love, put love first.”

What would it mean to do this throughout our day? You might be angry when a guy pulls through a small gap in traffic and swerves in front of you. I was troubled when I had to walk on my fracture all the way from the doctor’s room to the x-ray machine. Put in your own examples.

How would it be to “put love first” in these situations? Wouldn’t it mean delving a bit deeper into our soul and seeing that earlier you too had pulled over in front of someone on the highway? Can we see that my misdeeds are forgiven, not only often by other people, but always by God? Can I therefore back off just a bit and let kindness poke its head up amidst the outrage?

I think this what Peter saw, however unclearly, when he said at last to Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Gospel). He saw in Jesus someone who did in fact put love first—in everything and at all times. Maybe this is what motivated Paul to be “poured out like a libation” in his preaching of the Word of love (Second Reading). Certainly it was the reason Peter was released from prison miraculously. Then he went to help the Word of love to spread across the world (First Reading).

Does putting love first seem impossible? The second verse of Cyprian’s song says, “I know there is nothing that love cannot face.” There is a lot that we ourselves cannot face, but what if God did put love into our hearts and we let it overcome fear?

Let’s try it.

John Foley, SJ

**From Saint Louis University