In today’s first reading, which continues the sequence of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle tells us that love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. These powerful words express the often slow and gentle, yet persistent and inexorable power of love, a power that wears away the rough, stony casing that often surrounds human hearts and transforms them into supple hearts of flesh. So God’s love works upon us, gently yet powerfully leading us to deeper communion with God and one another, always respecting our freedom and reaching out to us in ways that we are capable of receiving. Indeed, we can say that God bears with us in our faults, believes in our capacity for goodness, hopes in our transformation and salvation, and endures the sometimes slow progress that we make.
If this is how God deals with us—individually and collectively, as the whole human family—then what does this say about how we might love one another? One has merely to look at a couple that has been faithfully married for many years to see how the patience, kindness, truthfulness, hopefulness of love is lived out practically, in all sorts of mundane, daily choices and attitudes. That love, when it is faithful, is a participation in the love and life of God.
Today, let us ponder the love God shows us, asking that we might be filled with wonder and gratitude. And let us examine our own practices of love for those around us, asking for the grace to love one another as the Lord God loves us.