Can we dream of the day when the sun returns and melts all of the snow? Can we imagine the ribbon cutting ceremony we’ll have in the Spring once our playground and basketball court have been installed?
Can we imagine children running around outside without a care in the world while their parents swap stories over a cup of coffee from the SPX café?
It sounds so nice to me.
And thankfully, those days are coming soon.
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This dream that children have a safe place to pray and play with role models to look up to is nothing new. But it’s a beautiful thing when it happens.
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Today we celebrate the Feast of Saint John Bosco, who shared a similar dream.
John wanted children to grow up in a safe and loving environment. He wanted them to dream about their future, to know that God had a plan for them, and to know they had the skills and talent to make anything happen.
What’s particularly inspiring about John’s story is the fact that he served underprivileged youth throughout his ministry, giving those who were abandoned a place to call “home.”
By the end of his ministry, he changed thousands of lives for the better.
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John was like a tiny mustard seed, planted in the soil of northern Italy. With hard work and grace, he transformed an entire community.
When I think about what God did through him, I begin to wonder, “Now why not us?”
Brothers and sisters: Strive eagerly for the greatest spiritual gifts. But I shall show you a still more excellent way.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy, and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 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.
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. If there are prophecies, they will be brought to nothing; if tongues, they will cease; if knowledge, it will be brought to nothing. For we know partially and we prophesy partially, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 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 aside childish things. At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known. So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
The Word of the Lord.
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I’m a sucker for today’s second reading – Saint Paul’s most famous words on love – as are many couples on their wedding day.
It just sounds so romantic: “If I do not have love, I am nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, it is not pompous. It does not seek its own interests… Love never fails.”
And while that’s true – love never fails – what is love?
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I often ask engaged couples that question while helping to prepare them for marriage. “You are promising to love one another for the rest of your life, so what is it? How would you define love?”
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One of the most recent answers I received came from a groom-to-be. I asked him, “How would you define love?”
And after a few seconds of the “deer-in-headlights” look, he said, “What, am I supposed to answer that?”
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Love can be hard to define. Yet it’s what created the cosmos; it’s the reason why we exist; it’s the one, often elusive, thing that every human heart craves. Scripture even tells us, “God IS love.”
So, what is it?
Perhaps the best definition that I’ve read comes from William Shakespeare’s famous play, Romeo and Juliet. Maybe you’ve heard me use this before, but I believe it’s worth repeating.
In the famous balcony scene, a young Juliet gazes down upon Romeo and says, “Romeo, the more I give to you, the more I seem to have.”
Juliet had everything the world could offer: a palace, servants, and the blue blood of royalty running through her veins. But without love, as Saint Paul would say, she’d be, “a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.”
Juliet learned to live in a world of “we,” not “me,” by discovering the strange, scary truth about love: the more we give ourselves away, the more we seem to have.
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This idea of giving oneself away is a law written by God into all of creation.
It’s the law of self-donation.
For example, the sun does not shine on itself; it gives its light away to warm and brighten the earth.
Rivers do not drink their own water.
Trees do not eat their own fruit. They offer it for the nourishment of others. Meanwhile, their branches stretch towards the heavens to offer others shade from the noonday heat.
Flowers release their fragrance.
Everything and everyone is meant to offer themselves for the good of others – a husband to his wife, a parent to their child, a shepherd to his flock, one friend to another, or a Christian to another in need.
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Allow me share an example of love in action, that has tugged at my heart.
There’s a woman who’s been suffering from cancer for the last seven years. She’s fought the cancer tooth and nail and is one of the most resilient people I’ve ever met. But her mobility has been compromised to the point that she’s nearly paralyzed.
Recently, she said to me, “Father, the only thing I want is to go to Mass.”
And for the last two weeks, a friend of hers has managed to carry her from her wheel chair into her car, back into her wheelchair, and finally here into church, positioning her near the altar, and covering her with a blanket.
Carrying a paralyzed friend to Mass. That’s love.
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In what ways do we also love other people? Or, how do we give ourselves away?
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It’s the mom making mac and cheese for the hundredth time, the dad attending soccer practice, a smile from the cashier at the grocery store, a grandfather tossing baseballs with his grandson despite his arthritis, a loving note sent in the mail to a friend, a teenager cleaning the house when they’d rather be outside.
Love is anything that inspires us to live in a world of “we,” not “me.” And that love is all around us.
Together, may we bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things.
Because love never fails.
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Image credits: (1) NIV Bible, It Never Fails (2) Brainy Readers (3) Catherine, OnSpritsWings.com
Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the Kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”
He said, “To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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In April 2020, a ninety-nine-year-old British World War Two veteran, Captain Tom Moore, wanted to raise money to support people who became ill with COVID-19.
He promised to walk one-hundred laps around his garden with his walker before his 100th birthday, only a few weeks away.
His goal was $1,250. Then his story went viral. In all, Captain Tom captivated the hearts of 1.5 million people, raising over $40 million!
What started as a humble effort to help a neighbor in need exploded into a global obsession.
Captain Tom’s story reminds us that God works in mysterious ways, often using simple ideas and ordinary people – mustard seeds – to change the world.
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Jesus did the same. He set the world on fire with the call of Saint Peter, then the other eleven Apostles. Two-thousand years later, the Church has grown by more than 1 million percent!
The power of a mustard seed.
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Or consider what’s happened in our own parish.
A year ago, our soup kitchen was closed. Then a mustard seed was planted. Three people joined. Then four. Then five. Today we have over twenty volunteers who feed the hungry among us!
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A ninety-nine-year-old man raises $40 million.
The Church grows by one-million percent.
Our own parish experiences renewal.
It all begins with a mustard seed.
Imagine what the Lord can do through you.
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Image credits: (1) Desert Streams Ministries (2) Captain Tom Moore, Wikipedia (3) Herbal Academy
