"A short journey in search of a soul."
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things,
believes all things.
hopes all things,
endures all things,
Love....never ends!
With these familiar words of St. Paul ringing in our hearts, we continue on our sacred journey through life, ending, as most great symphonies end, on a major chord--love.
I read this marvelous hymn of love yesterday at two weddings. Indeed, I read it thirty to forty times a year and never tire of its words or message for it is, as I share with bride and groom, not only a scripture reading but a fine sermon on the nature of human love. And though it may be a bit presumptuous of me to interpret Paul's elegant words, I'd like to put some flesh on three of his definitions with three parables, stories which might help us understand the true nature of Christian love.
We will begin with Paul's list of what love is not. Love is not to be jealous and it does not insist on its own way. I suppose if I were to put that in my own words, I would also add, "love looks and acts outward, not inward."
In my daily devotional reading I ran across this gem from Oswald Chambers' classic, "My Utmost for His Highest."
"Love has an element of abandonment to it. If love does not carry you beyond yourself, it is not true love. If your love is discreet, always wise, always sensible and calculating, it may be nice affection, it may be a warm feeling, but it is not love."
This is true whether your love is directed to another person or to God. In fact, I think we learn how to truly love God by learning how to love each other through the slow but sure process of abandoning our needs in favor of another, "for it is in giving that we receive." An old parable which helps us understand this point:
A pious monk walking down a road discovered a precious pearl on the roadside. Admiring its great beauty, he carried it with him inside his knapsack. One day he met a poor traveler and they sat down together to share a meal. When the monk opened his bag, the traveler saw the jewel and boldly asked for it. Without a thought, the monk handed it over to him.
Overjoyed, the poor man dashed away with his prize and newfound wealth. But within a few days he turned around and returned to the monk. Giving back the precious pearl, he said, "Sir, you have something even more valuable than this treasure, a gift of greater value. Would you please give me that love which enabled you to give away your precious jewel so freely?"
I think there exists within all of us the potential for that level of abandonment of self, that true Christian love which can give to another person, "the shirt off your back," and give to God the center of your soul. Let's work on this one as we journey together and, with God, through Lent.
The second point that I am slowly learning about the nature of Christian love is that the source of it all lies deep within us and so life becomes a sacred journey in search of the source of greater love. Again, a parable which makes a lot of sense to me:
There was once a rabbi, Eisik of Cracow, Poland, who had a dream which told him to go to far-off Prague where under the great bridge to the royal castle he would discover a hidden treasure. This same commanding dream was repeated twice. He finally decided to go, making the long journey by foot. On arriving in Prague, he found the bridge, but as there were sentinels posted there night and day, he dared not venture to dig. However, day after day he returned and loitered around trying to study the situation. Finally, he attracted the attention of one of the guards. "Have you lost anything, my good man?" he asked. The rabbi told him of his dream. "You poor man, to have worn out a pair of shoes traveling all this way only because of a dream!
"Why, I had a foolish dream once. A voice commanded me to go to Cracow and search for the home of a rabbi Eisik, where I would find a great treasure buried in a corner behind the stove. Imagine believing in such a dream!" and he laughed again. Rabbi Eisik bowed politely and bid the officer farewell. He then hurried back to Cracow. There he dug under the neglected corner behind his stove and found the treasure...thus putting an end to his misery. (Martin Buber)
The journey in search of our soul is truly a journey inward and it is a journey we must all take. Once we have found the great treasure of spiritual love which lies buried in the corner of our heart, it then becomes easy to give it away and share it with others because the true source of love is a never-ending, never-depleted treasure. What Rabbi Eisik found was the taproot into God's eternal love, a root that is within every one of us.
Third and last, love believes in all things. Love is fundamentally optimistic by nature and sees the world and ourselves as good and lovable. And yet, we humans have a unique ability to get down on ourselves. We let other people tell us by their words or actions that we are unlovable and unworthy.
Do you remember the fairy tale, Rapunzel? It is a story about a young girl imprisoned in a tower with an old witch. Rapunzel is, in fact, very beautiful, but the old witch tells her every day that she is ugly. It is the witch's way of keeping her imprisoned in the tower.
One day, however, Rapunzel is gazing out upon the world from the window of her tower, and there at the base stands Prince Charming. Without a second thought, Rapunzel throws down from the window to the prince her long and beautiful, golden hair. The prince takes Rapunzel's hair, braids it into a ladder and then climbs up to rescue her. At the window, they look into each other's eyes, the prince carries Rapunzel away to freedom and they live happily ever after.
The point of the fairy tale is that the prison Rapunzel lives in is not the tower, but the fear of ugliness which the witch has described so often and so effectively. The witch has convinced her that she is of no value. However, when Rapunzel looks into the eyes of her Prince Charming and sees her own reflection there, she knows that she is beautiful and lovable, and so she is finally freed from the tyranny of the witch, to live with love.
This is for me a deeply spiritual tale, because it helps me to understand that if we see ourselves only through the world's eyes, we may be overwhelmed and incapacitated. No matter what fears or ugliness reside inside, when we look into the eyes of Christ (everyone's Prince Charming), we see ourselves in a new light. We see forgiveness; we see complete acceptance; we see everlasting love. We are freed by Christ's love, who stands at the window of our souls, and in His presence we learn that we are lovable persons, created in the image of God, with an inexhaustible supply of giving and receiving the kind of love which helps us to "live happily ever after."
And now, with this good news, it is time to close this short journey in search of a soul. Let's end as we began, but with a minor change to Paul's great hymn--just add the word "my" to his words and say it until you mean it:
My love bears all things,
believes all things
hopes all things,
endures all things.
And with God's precious help, my love will never end. Amen.
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