Wings of Angels, Tears of Saints

1^st Corinthians 13 is old news.

I’ve heard it called trite.

Done to death.

It gets quoted at weddings, used for vow renewals, read out haltingly in a variety of translations…

It’s passé. So very 1970s Hallmark feel-good pap, deprived of all or any strength it once had to move the heart.

Deprived of any power.

So, let’s try it again, from another point of view.

13

You can say all of the right things, but if you don’t believe what you are saying, if you don’t live it with all the strength of your being, you are just making noise.

You can be brilliant, able to make intuitive jumps that dazzle the imagination and lead millions. You can be learned, with enough knowledge to plan for any eventuality. You can even believe you are completely committed to serving the Word of the God of your heart, but if you don’t care about people, all people, it isn’t worth anything. Humanity is the reflection of God, made in the Divine image- how can you claim to Love the Divine if you turn away from its Mirror in disgust and anger?

You can give to charity and work for social justice and brag about how much you have sacrificed for the cause, but if you didn’t do it because you love the people with all of your heart and soul, if you didn’t do it because you needed them to be free so that you could breathe, then there is no point at all.

Love doesn’t work for your schedule. It doesn’t care that you had an important meeting. Sometimes it needs you now. Sometimes it makes you late or get you dirty. Sometimes it says that you must start again. Love isn’t about keeping score and getting ahead. It isn’t about being seen with the cool kids or the power brokers. Love doesn’t care if you succeed in business without really trying. Love isn’t about getting even and getting over and being glad when someone gets theirs- love says we all cross the finish line together or it isn’t a finish line at all. Love says we are all one family, and we can never quit until everyone is seated at the table.

Love turns over tables. Love pushes open doors.

New fads die away. Brilliant speakers stop speaking. People forget things and new facts come to light. The fact that we are all part of a human family remains no matter how we look at it or what ideologies come and go. If you are still holding onto ideas of “better than”, “more worthy than”, “more deserving than”, then you can’t see the whole picture, and you can’t speak to the whole truth.

If you want to be all that you were created to be, if you want to claim all that is yours to claim, you must claim it for everyone. Recognize the immense good, the immense Love, of which you are a part, and in doing so see clearly all the other parts of that Love. You can see the beauty, and the power, and the immensity, only when you can see the whole.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Amen