When someone loves, there is no need to tell him that he must honour his father
and his mother or that he must not kill. It would be offensive to tell anyone who loves his fellow man and woman that he must not steal – how could he steal from those he loves? And why urge him not to bear false witness? He would never do such a thing, just as he would be utterly incapable of coveting his neighbour’s wife.
* * *
Love, then, is ‘the fulfilling of the Law’.
Love is the rule that contains all the other rules.
Love is the commandment that justifies all the other commandments.
Love is the secret of life.
Paul learned this and, in the letter I read from just now, he gave us the best and most important description of the summum bonum – the highest good.
Paul begins by comparing Love with other qualities that were greatly valued at the time.
He compares it with eloquence; a noble gift capable of touching people’s hearts and minds and encouraging them to carry out important sacred tasks or deeds that go above and beyond the call of duty.
Paul says of great preachers: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am become a noisy gong, or a clanging cymbal.
And we all know why. We often hear what seem to be great ideas capable of transforming the world. But they are mere words devoid of emotion, empty of Love, which is why they do not touch us, however logical and intelligent they may seem.
Paul compares Love with Prophecy. He compares it with Mysteries. He compares it with Faith. He compares it with Charity.
Why is Love greater than Faith?
Because Faith is merely a path that leads us to the Greater Love.
Why is Love greater than Charity?
Because Charity is merely one of the ways in which Love manifests itself. And the whole is always greater than its individual parts. Charity is also merely a path, one of the many paths that Love uses to bring us closer to our fellow man.
And, as we all know, there is also a kind of Charity in which Love plays no part. It’s so easy to toss a coin to a poor man in the street; in fact it’s usually easier to do that than not.
It frees us from the guilty feelings aroused by the cruel spectacle of poverty.
What a relief, and purchased with just one coin! It’s cheap for us and solves the beggar’s problem.
However, if we really loved that poor man, we would do far more for him.
Or perhaps less. We would not toss him a coin and, who knows, our guilty feelings might arouse real Love in us.
Paul then compares Love with sacrifice and martyrdom. And I say to those who hope one day to work for the good of humanity: If I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Nothing!
You cannot give anything more important than the Love reflected in your own life. That is the one true universal language, which allows us to speak Chinese or the dialects of India. For if, one day, you go to those places, the silent eloquence of Love will mean that you will be understood by everyone.
A man’s message of Faith lies in the way he lives his life and not in the words he says.
Not long ago, I was in the heart of Africa, near the Great Lakes. There I met men and women who remembered with affection the one white man they had encountered: David Livingstone. And while I followed his footsteps through the Dark Continent, people’s faces lit up as they told me about the doctor who had passed through there some three years before. They could not understand what Livingstone said to them, but they felt the Love that was there in his heart.
Take that same Love with you and the work you do will be fully justified.
When you speak about God and the world of the spirit, there can be no more eloquent subject. There is no point in talking about miracles, witnesses of Faith, fine prayers. If you do all that but have not Love, all your efforts will be in vain.
You may accomplish everything you set out to accomplish and be prepared to make any sacrifice, but if you give your body to be burned and have not Love, you will have achieved nothing for yourself or for God’s cause.
After comparing Love with all those things, Paul – in three short verses – gives an amazing analysis of that Greatest of Gifts.