Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it 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. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. (1 Cor 12:31-13:13)
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/013022.cfm
The readings for this Sunday are challenging: the call of the prophet Jeremiah to proclaim a word that will be rejected by kings, priests, and people; Jesus preaching about the faith of foreigners and angering the hometown folks in the process so that they want to kill him. Perhaps Saint Paul’s hymn to Love may seem to be a bit out of place. But when we look at the Cross of the Lord we begin to understand what it means to “strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts.” And as Saint Paul points out: “So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.”
These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.
IV ORDINARY SUNDAY
