Love – The Greatest Gift of the Holy Spirit
[31] But earnestly desire the higher gifts. And I will show you still a more excellent way.
[1] If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. [2] And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. [4] Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; [5] it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; [6] it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. [7] Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
[8] Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. [9] For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy is imperfect; but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will pass away. [11] When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways. [12] For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood. [13] So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(1 Cor 12:31-13:13).
The Navarre Bible commentary remarks that in this passage, St Paul is encouraging the early Christians to put greater value on those gifts of the Holy Spirit which contribute most to the goal of the Church than on those which are spectacular. The commentary suggests that Paul probably has in mind the teaching he will develop (in chap. 14) about the superiority of graces and charisms to do with teaching and catechesis.
In the LOTW retreat, great emphasis is placed on teaching about and calling down the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The weekend culminates in the consecration liturgy/laying on of hands and in the celebration of Mass.
It is an awesome result of the LOTW Retreat that some people receive spectacular gifts (e.g. immediate healing, speaking in tongues, interlocutions). The LOTW materials point out that such gifts are wonderful and spiritually edifying. But, the materials also rightly point out that such remarkable gifts are not necessary, nor the primary focus of the Retreat. Rather, the gifts of the Holy Spirit sought are whatever gifts are needed for the retreatants to surrender their lives to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – for their own sanctification and for the growth of the entire Body of Christ.
Our Lord teaches that the greatest commandment is to Love God with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength. The second commandment is to love our neighbor as our self. (Mk 12:29-31). No Evangelizer can fully proclaim the Kerygma without love. No Witness can deeply touch a wounded heart without love. No Shepherd can listen openly to a soul without love. And no retreatant can experience surrender and conversion without love.
The Christian is enabled to respond to the love of God by this gift of the Holy Spirit, charity (cf. Gal 5:22; Rom 15:30), and by virtue of this divine love he discovers God in his neighbor: he recognizes that all are children of the one Father and brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ: "Our love is not to be confused with sentimentality or mere good fellowship, nor with that somewhat questionable zeal to help others in order to convince ourselves of our superiority. Rather, it means living in peace with our neighbor, venerating the image of God that is found in each and every person and doing all we can to get them in their turn to contemplate that image and learn to turn to Christ" (St. J. Escriva, "Friends of God", 230).
We must all heed the call of St. Paul, humbly echoed in the words of the LOTW Retreat. We must call upon the Holy Spirit for the gift of charity. We must ardently embrace this gift. We must surrender every aspect of our life to this gift. Only then will we be able to truly surrender ourselves to God. Only when, through openness to the Holy Spirit, we think, talk, walk and breathe charity will Jesus truly be the Lord of our life.
+JITIY+ |
