A priestly challenge and the capacity to love.

This is cool, try it out. It was a part of the homily in Church today. Just do this even though you've heard/read it a hundred times! Trust me it's cool!

1) Keep your eyes on the crucifix while reading this (we looked on while this passage was being read to us).

"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. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things." - 1 Cor 13: 4-7

2) Think of someone that has hurt you. The worse the hurt the better this works.

3) Now keep them as reference in mind and re-read the above scripture replacing the word 'Love' with your own name!!!

So, in my case, "Karan is patient, Karan is kind, etc." - and as you do this (which will almost instantly make one laugh I assume - does me) you will see how far or close from the Christian ideal of Christlike love we are.

Jesus loved those who pushed him beyond death - loving those who like you (or you like), or loving someone who has hurt you forever ago is not a true test of Christian maturity like my Priest said to our congregation.

He also tied in 1 Cor 13:11 (also included in today's readings) - "When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put away childish things." So he was saying St. Paul in this sentence was talking about Christian maturity as gauged by the capacity to love.

The first part of this chapter is about how one can have it all - but all is nothing if one does not have love; it then spells out what that love looks like (the common 'wedding' reading written above) by describing what Christ's love was/is; and then finally, how dangerous Real Love is! (I think of Pablo Neruda talking about his 'dangerous love').

Thereafter Fr. Satish gave us the fun test I've spelled out above to gauge our capacity for this real love, and in so far as that, show us where we can pray for God's grace to bring us to the fullness of this ideal (as much as possible on earth).

Okay do it, and then you can finish this article if you want, the rest of the article is just my garbage - this was the good meat! Hope you really enjoyed it! I should add - this is all because following the crucifixion comes the resurrection! i.e. Love, Real Love, "never fails."

And read this homily by clicking here! it's great!

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My garbage thoughts

I had been meditating on these scriptures, I had stared at my crucifix or kept it in mind when I did (repeated readings) - and then today it was the homily! awesome.

I especially like the putting your name in there and keeping in mind someone that hurt you, because the validity of love is therein shown or destroyed and can even be created. awesome.

Also, earlier in the day I was speaking to one of my professor friends on the East Coast whose meta-narrative is culture. We discussed the individualistic culture of America in contrast to the communal culture of Christianity (specifically the push of Catholics and further Italian Catholics). The candy fed, pop culture, conventional definition of 'love' and especially of 'hurt'; that our tolerance is actually quite low and it takes a repeated hammering for Christ to finally arm us with the "breastplates of righteousness" (so to speak). That Love (capital L) finds itself validated in the face of overwhelming grief and depression and fear and mis-trust - not in safety! Just like in 1 Cor 13! Just like Christ on the Cross! And once that is accepted and enacted, then the passages about Christ's "yolk being easy to carry" make more sense; and then also the candy fed pop psychology becomes applicable in so far as "it doesn't have to be this hard" and becomes "safe" (i.e. Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, dancing in exile, living in the moment, etc.). The modern world is focused on the resurrection and denies the crucifixion, some even say they don't need it because Jesus already did it; which in my opinion is again only partially true theology - but anyways...all this was before I even went to mass! awesome.

A riveting conversation that tied in inexplicably but is more than I can type or find necessary to share. I suggest think about these things, it's wonder-filled stuff; Dr. Phil and Oprah and Tyra Banks and popular music and etc. etc. have massively confused the ideal of love by replacing it with their post-modern pop psychology that Love, as presented by the man of Christ, is seen twistedly through this "new" lens of post-modern mid-western American culture - what we now know as 'conventional thinking' (and some voice in the background yells, "correct thinking!"). Love is not safe in the modern sense, but once we tackle this - our capacity itself becomes a danger to the modern ideal! awesome.

I don't know, anyways, we'll get there, God's bringing us back everyday whether we know it or not, and take it from me, I have no idea what he's doing to me everyday, or even if I'm in the right direction, or even following him! but I try and just have faith that he's doing what he's doing, and that that's what's best, and it can only be done one day at a time and that sucks and is awesome simultaneously and it all doesn't matter as long as we have a continual increase in the capacity for Christlike love.