FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

SUNDAY, JANUARY 30, 2022

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

First Reading: Jeremiah 1:4-5, 17-19

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:31—13:13

 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 71:1-6, 15, 17

Gospel: Luke 4:21-30

Luke’s Gospel was originally addressed  non Jewish converts to Christianity. And so from the beginning of Jesus’s ministry He tries to show how His ministry includes the gentiles. The Gospel today is a continuation Jesus’ reading of the scroll of Isaiah, a passage that describes the ministry of the Messiah. Jesus applies them to Himself by saying this prophecy is fulfilled as you listened. He won the admiration of all. But suddenly, the people are enraged at Him? He said something that angered them. He talked about God’s love which extends to gentiles. He gave them examples they were familiar with. But the people do not want a Messiah whose ministry will extend to the gentiles and their oppressors. They have to learn that God’s love and salvation extends to all.

With this in mind, we reflect on the second reading which is St Paul’s famous hymn to charity. It is one of the most beautiful pages in all of Pauline writings. Love, charity of which Paul is speaking has nothing to do with selfish or physical passionate longing and cannot be reduced to the Greek ‘eros’ or ‘philos’ which we find in the dialogues of Plato. Love is such an excellent gift that without it, all other gifts we may have make no sense.

To understand Paul’s definition of love here in first Corinthians 13, it is important to look at the entire passage. And when we do that, we see how Paul is actually giving us a portrait of what love is and what love is not. Our English translations use adjectives but Paul is actually using verbs. This is very important because in English we tend to think of love primarily as a feeling or emotion. But Paul is very clear here that love is an action that chooses to do certain things and chooses not to do other things.

With that basic framework in mind we can ask, what is love, caritas in Latin?  Paul’s approach is ‘what does charity do and what does charity not do? Paul says love is patient or does patience. right? love is kind, does kindness. What about what does not do? Paul says, love is not jealous; it does not do jealousy. Love is not pompous; it does not boast. Love is not rude; it does not act rude. Love does not seek its own interests; it does not seek its own will. Willing the good for the other, dying to self and choosing the good of the other is an act of love. Love is not quick-tempered; it does not brood over injury. It is not resentful and it doesn’t rejoice over wrongdoing bur rejoices over the truth. Paul even roots the theological virtues; faith and hope on love. Love believes all things. Why do I believe everything that God says to me in the Scriptures and through the Church? Because I love God. Why do I hope in God? Because I love him. Love endures all things. Love never ends. Paul tells us that even the virtues flow from love.

So, in this parallel, we see a portrait of what love is and what love is not or rather what living a life of love looks like. Some scholars have said, if you want to understand Paul’s portrait of love, one of the things you can do is to replace the word love in this passage with the name Jesus. And what you actually get is a Portrait of the life of the Savior. Jesus is patient, Jesus is kind, Jesus not jealous or boastful he’s not arrogant or rude, he doesn’t insist on his own will, He was obedient to the Father and even at the most difficult time, He said, “not my will but your will be done.” He is not quick-tempered or resentful, He doesn’t rejoice it wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. He believes all things by putting his trust in the father, He hopes all things, He endures all things; He endured the cross with the greatest equanimity. So, we see a powerful portrait of the charity of Christ emerging in Paul’s description of love. Jesus is love, right? This is similar to the beatitudes which Pope benedict said is a kind of profile of Jesus himself. The same thing here with love, it is a kind of profile of the one who is the living love of God made flesh.

This passage on love can also be a most beautiful passage for our self-examination. Just as we removed the word ‘love’ and substituted it with the name of Jesus to get a portrait of Jesus, you can put your own name as a way of examining yourself. Sometimes it is too easy to use the ten commandments to examine ourselves and come out pretty clean.  I haven’t committed adultery, right haven’t murdered anyone, I haven’t worship false gods, I go to mass every Sunday and so on. Many of us will hesitate to use this passage because we are not always patient and kind, we find that we are jealous, boastful and rude. We are often resentful and quick-tempered, insisting on our own will even when it is against the will of God, we often place our needs above the needs everyone else. The liturgy today invites us to allow ourselves to be molded by the love of God until love becomes our own portrait because without love, we cannot please God.

Happy Sunday

Rev. Fr.  Chidi Onwuka MSSCC