I Cor 13/Ps 71

We associate this passage with weddings, and we should. With that wedding association, it is in danger of falling into a romantic haze. Maybe it would be a good idea to re-read this passage every anniversary. This passage is directed more at the church in general, but it does give us proper aspiration for romantic love. Further, apply it to one's life as a parent or adult child, and it applies just as much.

 

Psalm 71 sees the world as a tough place, where we need some protection. Love offers refuge. Love fights shame, the nagging sense that we do not measure up, fo something wrong about us that needs to be hidden. In seeking the good of the other-we discover good ourselves. Still, Paul is less concerned about its benefits to oneself, but in the building up of the other and the community. Love requires mutuality to grow. So, the passage speaks to the giver or recipient of love.How is love kind?  In word and deed, in things that appeal to the other.- should it bear all things/protects/passes over in silence believes all things is not stupidity but in God's future. Remember that love includes mutuality; it builds up both parties. It cannot be taken to me that we are doormats for love, as if we should be victims of abuse. It means more that we bear with things for the loved one, such as illness. Love is not rude. Erich Seagal famously wrote love means never having to say you're sorry.  In romantic love, we speak endearments and sweet words, but as the bloom fades, so do they. Instead, we become more ourselves, more comfortable with each other and we replace those words of love with other things. I know a young man who refers to his wife, soon to be mother of their third child, as the old ball and chain. The invective that pours from both genders when complaining to friends would make one wonder why they picked this reading at a wedding. Now think of the tone and the words we use toward our children.

 

With the pairing of the lectionary psalm, I've begun to consider if love adapts to our age and should be adapted to the age of a loved one. The love we show a child differs from the love we show a spouse, a friend, or a parent. We could connect to Paul's thoughts of speaking as a child or an adult. We already do this to a degree when we try to do things that appeal to our loved one.now. Will you still need me when I'm 64, the Beatles sang. Bruce Springsteen's latest album has a track on counting the wrinkles on a birthday. Ps. 71 mentions growing older three times. It covers the entire life cycle from birth to death. The old psalmist wants to knwo love in old age and in a dire position. As the Doobie Brothers asked, without love, where would we be now?

 

Charles Williams linked heaven and love. A good way to approach this passage is to see it as describing the love of God toward which we aspire. God's love is patient with us, especially in the sense of persrevering with us, of not giving up on us. God loves us at our magnificent best at a wedding, but God loves us at our worst, maybe not in spite of our faults and limitations, but in all of it, because God loves us. Love is indeed the ultimate virtue, as it centers and builds up the other virtues we need to live a good life. That good life is a loved and loving life, no matter who we are.