Homily

Sunday, January 31, 2010; 4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
St. Suzanne/Our Lady Gate of Heaven, and St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, Detroit

Some Thoughts about the Hymn of Charity (1 Cor 13)

           It is impossible to speak about charity – or any of the virtues, in fact – without a certain fear. None of us has lived up to the perfection of charity. Yet I as your priest occupy that office through which the message of Christian charity is to be preached to the whole world.

            Now, our current translation uses the word “love,” but the original text has a different word, “charity.” There are, in fact, three words in the original Greek, in wich St. Paul wrote today’s Epistle (1 Cor 13) which are similar in concept. Eros, philia and agape. [Give a brief definition.] Sometimes in English, when we say “charity,” we immediately associate it to the charity of giving money to a “charity,” or to some one or some group. But charity as a virtue is far, far greater than that. It is selfless love, love for the beloved’s sake, and not for what the lover might get out of it.

            There are various words for love, because love contains many dimensions. Even animals love, and some of you with pets love them. Animals know affection, but they do so only because they are creatures with senses. Human love must go farther than the senses, indeed, it must go farther than the passions. For animals have senses, and animals have passions, and with these they love. But we are more than animals. Then when you hear two people, especially young persons who are enamored with one another, say that they passionately love one another, you may congratulate them because they have so far only attained the least form of love, sense love, passion love, love of the feelings.

            Humans know friendship, which exists only between virtuous men. Friendship is the most basic human model of every form of love superior to sense love. There cannot be friendship with sin. Yet among Catholics today we find many who dissent against Church life and teaching; true friendship with such persons is impossible, even if we can show such persons basic charity. Even the Scribes and Pharisees were united in the evil they perpetrated against Christ [give an example]; but this is not true union, true friendship, because it was an evil union.

            I will mention a few other dimensions of love, besides affection and friendship, but more briefly. One is the joy that lifts a person outside of himself, a sort of ecstasy, typically which men and women experience as they enter into marriage and the goods of marriage. Another is that of decision. Love is given as an act of freedom, meaning there is a choice, a decision, and the responsibility that goes with that. Another is that love demands a price, which a true lover is happy to pay. A final dimension I mention today is that of selflessness, and I stress that self-absorbed and proud and vain and arrogant men do not love.

            Charity is different, in biblical terms, from love, because it has this twofold focus: God, and neighbor. There is an order to it: God must be loved above all; to sin against God for love of a human being is false love, the love of one who lies about his love. For love and evil exclude one another absolutely and always! Furthermore, it is impossible to love God without loving one’s neighbor, and it is impossible to love one’s neighbor without loving God. People who show off their piety but fail to love their neighbor are fakes.

            So let us see some ways to love God more, and then some other ways to love our neighbor more. I’ll give only some ideas, for the lists could go on an on about how to love God first, and after Him, those around us.

            The most important way to love God, essential, without which there cannot be any love for God, is through the sacraments. Baptism introduces us to the love of God, Eucharistic communion is its fullness and perfection. Confession is necessary for those who have broken any of the commandments, in mortal sin, to restore the love of their souls for God. For this love is not just an action we do. God puts it in us, and, whether we feel it or not, by grace we love God with God’s own love. Marriage is a way of loving God, and it too is a sacrament. Confirmation, anointing of the sick and holy orders are also sacraments: there are seven.

            But practicing the virtues, any and all of them, is a second way to love God; I mean faith, hope, charity, prudence, justice fortitude and temperance.

            A final recommendation I give for the love of God, is the life of prayer and devotion. One cannot grow in the love of God or overcome any habit of sin without a prayer life: it is impossible. Persevere in prayer, and rejoice in hope of your eternal salvation!

            In order to love our neighbor, St. Paul gives us so many recommendations in these verses alone, and in other places in his Epistles: patience, forgiveness, kindness, generosity, humility, never collaborating in sin, but even wisely reproaching the sinner to bring them to conversion. Fights may arise, and it’s enough for only one to want to fight; but if you can, to the degree you are able, live in peace with those around you (cf. Rom 12). Leave revenge to God, bless those who do you evil, and show hospitality to friend and stranger to the degree you prudently can. Always consider the other better than yourself, and be humble. These things build the love of neighbor.

            Let me summarize what I have said today: First, love has many dimensions, including these: affection, friendship, joy, decision, responsibility, self-sacrifice and selflessness. Second, the love of God must come first, for which we need the sacraments and virtues and a deep prayer life. Third, we must love our neighbor with forgiveness, humility and generosity.