23 March 2016 - love never fails

[ Today's Readings ]

See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.

Let our hearts revive LORD Jesus. The world is so filled with injustice. It seems certain that love and justice and truth cannot stand before the strength of the wicked. How would they oppose them without turning into the very evils they oppose? But you reveal a deeper truth. As much as it looks like these strategies succeed their success is at best temporary.

We see works of love and charity and often think, "I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity". But you reveal that even when such things don't seem to succeed that there is recompense for them with God (see Isaiah 49:4). Even when the rich and the powerful seem to triumph the lowly are changing the world in a hidden and humble way.

You give us the ultimate example of this with your cross. Jesus, your hope in the Father is how you endure the cross in spite of the shame. The cross seems like the ultimate failure of love as the world looks on. But it is the ultimate triumph.

The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.

Help us to trust you as you trust the Father. Help us to love as you love even when insult breaks our hearts and there are none around to give us sympathy. Even when we are outcasts because of our zeal for you let it consume us. Even when it means we go hungry because our enemies only give us food filled with gall and vinegar to drink let us be faithful to you. If we trust in you we can experience your saving power even amidst our trials. We can experience a hope so real we can taste it.

I will praise the name of God in song,
and I will glorify him with thanksgiving:
“See, you lowly ones, and be glad;
you who seek God, may your hearts revive!
For the LORD hears the poor,
and his own who are in bonds he spurns not.”

Love is constantly betrayed by a world more interested in other things. And we ourselves often betray it. But love is not thwarted thereby. As Saint Paul tells us, love never fails.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away (see First Corinthians 13:8).

Teach us to play the long game, LORD.

though the wicked sprout like grass
and all evildoers flourish,
they are doomed to destruction forever;
but you, O LORD, are on high forever (see Psalm 92:7-8)

Help us to look beyond the way things seem to be. Help us to see things the way which we know they are because you tell us so. Help us to stake everything on love, just as you do.