And now these three remain:
Hope
Faith
And Love.
But the greatest of these is love.
1
Cor. 13:13
What a powerful verse -- it speaks of love in
all forms. Yesterday was Valentine’s Day, and 1 Cor. 13:13 speaks volumes in my
marriage.
Together, my husband and I hope for the things we cannot see
– we hope for a long future, we hope for health, we hope to be able to spend a
morning at a coffee shop alone some day, we hope for eternal life in Heaven.
We have faith in each other – faith that each of us will
remain committed in our relationship – no matter what the cost. We have faith
that our holy vows of “for better or worse” will be lived out as we walk this
journey of life – whatever this life may bring. We have faith that when one of
us is tired and weak the other will be strong and encouraging. We have faith
that we can cry with one another and laugh with one another. And we have faith
that if we live our lives as servants to each other, to our little girls, to
friends and to strangers, that one day we will meet Jesus.
But then there is love. If we do not hope in love, if we
do not have faith in love, if we do not do all things out of love, our service
is worthless. We can give generously, we can laugh loudly, we can cry
passionately, but if we do not love, it means nothing.
We must love. Pope Francis has encouraged us that this Lent we might fast from indifference towards others. I cannot overlook how perfectly
that aligns with this verse.
I am taking on that Lenten challenge. I want to look at
others and not past others. And while we often think to focus on strangers or even
acquaintances, there is a great need to apply that within our own homes. It is
easy to forget that those we care about the most don’t always get our best. It
is easy to take our children and our spouses for granted. So this Lent, I will
also focus on those outside as well as inside my home.
I encourage you this day, as Blessed Mother Teresa did, to do even little things with great love.
No comments:
Post a Comment