"The Greatest of These is Love"

As our culture celebrates "Valentine's Day" on February 14, let us call to mind Paul's message about the central importance of "love" for ourselves and our communities. The word "love," used by Paul and found throughout the New Testament, is a translation of the Greek term agápē, which is the highest form of human love, calling each of us to selflessly will the good for another. It is the closest human word that we have to try to describe the unconditional and unlimited love that God has for each of us, and that God calls us to share with one another, even our enemies. Allow Paul's words, proclaimed by many couples during their marriage ceremony, penetrate into your heart:

If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:1–13).

Let us take time to reflect on and pray for those people who need to experience God's love today.