1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13
Brothers and sisters:
Strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
How Can I Better Love?
I can no longer read this passage from 1 Corinthians without thinking of the magnificent insight of Ruth Burrows, in her small but mighty book, Extravagant Love: The Self-Emptying of Jesus. In it she writes, "Patience, it seems to me, is perhaps the greatest, deepest expression of love." She imagines the early Christians asking the disciples, "What was he like, what was Jesus like?" And that, "patience heads the list: 'Love is patient...'" (Burrows, 57)
Patience does not come naturally to me. I often yearn for things I see on the horizon but that are not yet within reach. I find it challenging when my perspective of the horizon changes because my path has taken an unexpected turn. It is humbling to be patient with others, trusting God (and them!) with the unfolding of their lives. I have difficulty being present to the many gifts of love that surround me, where my feet are today. It can be frustrating to know that change... in myself, with others, with society, and all of creation ... often takes time. A long time.
And yet, if I desire to love, I must be patient. Therefore, I strive to re-train my brain, and equate Loving with patience. And so, each day, as I strive to better love God, myself, others, and all of creation, I simply ask myself: What is the most loving choice I can make today? How can I better love today?
—Laura Gilmartin is the Grants Manager and Facilitator of Urban Plunge immersion retreats at Casa Romero Jesuit Renewal Center, serves on the leadership team of the Ignatian Volunteer Corps of Milwaukee, and maintains a private spiritual care practice for monthly spiritual direction as well as the accompaniment of people through The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. She completed her formation to serve in this capacity through the Seminars in Ignatian Formation with the Midwest Province of Jesuits.
Prayer
God who Loves us so patiently,
teach us, along with the Psalmist,
to be still before you,
and to wait patiently for God.
Amen.
—Laura Gilmartin, inspired by Psalm 37:7