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| Vol. XX No. 48 |
February 07, 2001 |
Virac, Catanduanes |
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The Catanduanes Tribune Rawis, Virac Catanduanes, Philippines - 5001 Tel. No.: (052) 811-1267 or 811-2640 Fax No.: (052) 811-1267 E-mail:
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Publisher-Editor Edwin A. Gianan |
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Advertising- Circulation Manager Simeon G. Cueno |
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Web Master: Calgary, Canada |
Other Concerns
by the Cathedral Clergy
Love
“Love” is acclaimed to be the most popular word since the advent of time. Even the least spoken human dialect has its own proper translation for it. It is used as a name, stands for one’s identity or speaks of a person’s character. It designates the spirit behind one’s ideals, aspirations and visions in life. It is love, we say, that makes the world turn around.
But while “love” is the most widely used term in human communication, it is also the most abused term people have ever known. While it gives us the reason to do good, some use it as an excuse for actions that are detrimental to others.
Next week will be Valentine’s and it will be good to see the word in a biblical perspective. St. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians (13:4-7) lists fifteen characteristics of Christian love. With the help of a biblical scholar, let us take a look at them.
Love is patient. The Greek word used in the New Testament always describes patience with people and not patience with circumstances. Chrysostom said that it is the word used of the man who is wronged and who has it easily in his power to avenge himself and who yet will not do it. It describes the man who is slow to anger and it is used of God himself in his relationship with men. In our dealings with men, however refractory and however unkind and hurting they are, we must exercise the same patience as God exercises with us. Such patience is not the sign of weakness but the sign of strength; it is not defeatism but rather the only way to victory. Fosdick points out that no one treated Lincoln with more contempt than Stanton. He called him “a low cunning clown,” he nicknamed him “the original gorilla” and said that Du Chaillu was a fool to wander about Africa trying to capture a gorilla when he could have found one so easily at Springfield, Illinois. Lincoln said nothing.
He made Stanton his war minister because he was the best man for the job and he treated him with every courtesy. The years wore on. The night came when the assassin’s bullet murdered Lincoln in the theatre. In the little room to which the President’s body was taken stood that same Stanton, and, looking down on Lincoln’s silent face, he said through his tears, “There lies the greatest ruler of men the world has ever seen.” The patience of love had conquered in the end.
Love is kind. Origin had it that this means that love is “sweet of all.” Jerome spoke of that he called “the benignity” of love. So much Christianity is good but unkind. There was no more religious a man than Philip the Second of Spain, and yet he founded the Spanish Inquisition and thought he was serving God by massacring those who thought differently from him. The famous Cardinal Pole declared that murder and adultery do not compare in heinousness with heresy. A part altogether from that persecuting spirit, there is in so many good people an attitude of criticism. So many good Church people would have sided with the rulers and not with Jesus if they had to deal with the woman taken in adultery.
Love knows no envy. It has been said that there are really only two classes of people in this world – “those who are millionaires and those who would like to be.” There are two kinds of envy. One covets the possessions of other people; and such envy is very difficult t avoid because it is a very human thing. The other is worse - it grudges the very fact that others should have what it has not; it does not so much want things for itself as wish that others had not got them. Meanness of soul can sink no further than that.
Love is no braggart. There is a self-effacing quality of love. True love will always be far more impressed with his own unworthiness than its own merit. In Barrie’s story Sentimental Tommy used to come home to his mother after some success at school and say, “Mother, am I no’ a wonder?” Some people confer their love with the idea that they are conferring a favor. But the real lover cannot get over the wonder that he is loved. Love is kept humble by the consciousness that it can never offer its loved one a gift which is good enough.
Love is not inflated with its own importance. Napoleon always advocated the sanctity of the home and the obligation of public worship -- for others. Of himself, he said, “I am not a man like other men. The laws of morality do not apply to me.” The really great man never thinks of his own importance. Carey, who began life as a cobbler, was one of the greatest missionaries and certainly one of the best linguists the world has ever seen. He translated at least parts of the Bible into no fewer than thirty-four Indian languages. When he came to India, he was regarded with dislike and contempt. At a dinner party, a snob, with the idea of humiliating him, said in a tone that everyone could hear, “I suppose, Mr. Carey, you once worked as a shoemaker.” “No, your lordship,” answered Carey, “not a shoemaker, only a cobbler.” He did not even claim to make shoes – only to mend them. No onle likes the “important” person. Man “dressed in a little brief authority” can be a sorry sight.
Love does not behave gracelessly. It is significant fact that in Greek the words for grace and charm are the same. There is a kind of Christianity that takes a delight in being blunt and almost brutal. There is strength in it but there is no winsomeness. Lightfoot of Durham said of Arthur F. Sim, one of his students, “Let him go where he will, his face will be a sermon in itself.” There is a graciousness in Christian love which never forgets that courtesy and tact and politeness are lovely things.
Love does not insist upon its rights. In the last analysis, there are in this world only two kinds of people – those who always insist upon their privileges and those who always remember their responsibilities; those who are always thinking of what life owes them and those who never forget what they owe to life. It would be the key to almost all the problem which surround us today if men would think less of their rights and more of their duties. Whenever we start thinking about “our place,” we are drifting away from Christian love.
(To be continued)
