Archbishop Gomez on Love

Most Reverend José H. Gomez, S.T.D. Archbishop of San Antonio

Pilgrims who have had the chance to visit the ancient city of Corinth in what is now Greece, are usually impressed by a white marble column that stands at the top of a small hill. “The Canticle of Charity” that St. Paul wrote to the people of this region almost two thousand years ago, is inscribed on this column.

The text, taken from Chapter 13 of his first letter to the Corinthians, is one of the most beautiful passages in the New Testament and it reflects the most important teaching of Christ in the preaching of St. Paul: Love. It also shows that our religion is not based upon negatives and limitations, but in the “great yes to life” — as John Paul II used to say — that is love.

The current cultural reality calls us to rediscover the authentic meaning of love and its practical application to our daily life. St. Paul is a unique teacher on this subject. The apostle to the Gentiles develops for us the new commandment and St. John’s affirmation that “God is love.” (1 Jn 4:8)

St. Paul acknowledges that the only way to speak about love is to describe it in its multiple expressions that we can appreciate its richness and find better ways to grow in its practice.

The canticle of the first letter to the Corinthians shows us that 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. (1 Cor 13:4-6)

In this way, St. Paul shows us specific actions that allow us to be men and women of charity. At the same time we can discover that real love is not only feelings or sentiments, but good deeds that show our care for others.

Today’s culture limits love to being an intense passion or emotion that makes us feel strongly attracted to something or someone. It then justifies breaking any moral law in order to “possess” the object of one’s desire.

St. Paul, by contrast, offers positive advice to objectively practice the virtue of love according to God’s law. He gives us a simple but powerful list of actions that show real love.

In other words we can grow in love in our lives exercising patience, a spirit of service, kindness and rejoicing in the truth. We can also practice charity rejecting any attitude that is envious, pompous, arrogant, quick-tempered and vengeful.

Thanks to St. Paul’s canticle on love, which sums up the beautiful doctrine of love revealed by Jesus Christ, we know that love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” (1 Cor 13:7)

The Pauline canticle of love could be a recurring guide for us, to make sure that we are loving God and others every day. Let’s keep in mind that in the end, love is the most essential aspect of our faith and something that cannot be missing in our lives. As the Spanish mystic poet, St. John of the Cross wrote, “in the evening of our lives, we will be judged in love.”

St. John of the Cross was not only speaking in a poetic way. He was telling us the same thing that St. Paul tells us, “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.” (1 Cor 13:3)

With these words, St. Paul shows us that only love gives a real meaning to the things and sacrifices we do.

St. Thomas Aquinas explained something very important in a comment about this Pauline passage: that true Christian love can change the smallest of our human acts in a great wonder, with an infinite value before the eyes of God.

This vision of love can only fill us with hope and joy: with the love of Jesus Christ in our lives, we can do all things.

I ask the Lord, in this Pauline Year proclaimed by Pope Benedict XVI, to guide our lives through the path of authentic love, the love that has been revealed to us by God who so loved the world that he gave us his own son.