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I used to volunteer at a nursing home in Totowa, run by the Little Sisters of the Poor.

One Sunday I heard a story from a nurse about a couple – John and Mary – who were living there. 

They’d been married for more than 60 years, but had to live on separate floors as Mary was suffering from dementia and could become aggressive at times. 

Nevertheless, every morning John went upstairs to brush her hair.

After a few weeks, one of the nurses finally stopped him and asked, “John, why do you keep brushing your wife’s hair? She doesn’t recognize you anymore…”

Putting the brush down, John turned around and said, “Because she deserves to look beautiful.”

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Whose hair do we brush? How do we make others feel beautiful?

And, conversely, how aware are we of the ways that other people brush our hair?

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Our second reading from Saint Paul addresses this very theme. It’s perhaps the most famous text ever written on love. 

Usually it’s read at weddings, but Paul wasn’t writing to a couple; he was writing to the entire Christian community in Corinth, which was struggling to remain united.  

You might say they put their brushes down and walked away from one another.

So Paul delivers the most impressive lesson on love. 

He begins by listing eight behaviors they’re guilty of, behaviors that cannot make them happy in the end. They’ve been, “jealous, rude, quick-tempered, selfish,” and so on.

But true love, he says, isn’t self-centered; it’s other-centered. Without such love they’re no more than a “resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.” 

Isn’t the same true for us?

Without love, “we have nothing…we are nothing.”

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Just think of John and Mary. 

Even though Mary couldn’t remember his name, John still got up every morning and brushed his wife’s hair. 

He worked through those silver knots and tangles, because he experienced Saint Paul’s words first hand.

“Love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous, it is not rude. It does not seek its own interests.”

Rather, “love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”

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How well do we love?

And, like John, how will we love another person today?

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Imagine life without light.

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For example, if you opened your fridge, you wouldn’t find the milk.

If you woke up in the middle of the night, good luck.

Or if you came to church for Mass, you wouldn’t see the altar.

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Light is essential to how we live our lives. But different size light bulbs are needed for different settings. 

In that fridge, for example, you only need the smallest of bulbs, even though it makes a world of difference!

In your room, you need a larger bulb.

And in the church, you need even larger bulbs.

Each light has a different purpose, but they all must shine. 

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In a similar way, God calls us to be light in different ways, in different settings. 

Saint John Bosco, for example, whose feast we celebrate today, spent his life serving and educating poor, at-risk youth. For these children, John was thesource of light in a world otherwise filled with darkness.

But what about us? How are we called to be light – in our homes, at work, in our parish, and in our world?

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Remember, we don’t need to do anything significant to shine.

Remember the light in your fridge. Even the smallest of bulbs can make a world of difference if it’s placed in the right setting.

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“Some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold… Whoever has ears ought to hear.” – Jesus (Mark 4:8-9).

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Fertile soil is only fertile because it has been wounded.

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Think about it.

In order to make soil fertile, one must penetrate it, break it open, and repeatedly separate it. Only after this set period of chaos, is the ground ready to receive life.

And when placed inside that soft, broken ground, seeds have the greatest chance of growing – developing into strong, sturdy plants.

Any plant that has borne good fruit was once a tiny seed placed inside fertile – broken – soil.

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The same is true for us.

When we’re in a dark place, it can seem like we’re buried.

Perhaps we’ve been planted. Only now we must bloom.

The truth is, those wounded areas in our lives have the greatest potential for growth.

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Where have I been wounded? Where do I have the opportunity to bloom?

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It is precisely these areas where Jesus, the Divine Gardener, wants to plant a seed, because ironically enough, a broken heart – the logic goes – presents the greatest opportunity for growth.

May the Lord’s peace take deep root in us, especially where we’ve been broken, so that we can experience the beauty of Paul’s words, “All things – all things! – work for the good of those who love God.”