January 30th Reflection by Bill Lynch

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
The Gift of Love

If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 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 do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

 Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Reflection
Just take the passage above and for this instance, whenever you see the word "love" replace that word with Jesus. You can do all sorts of wonderful things with your life but if you don't have Jesus, you are nothing but noise, you are nothing and you gain nothing.

Then the description of Jesus is appropriate also. Jesus endured all things for you, for me and for all people. Jesus came to grant life out of death.

Jesus never ends. Jesus' resurrection from the dead made eternal life available to all. Eternal life in living with God in union. We won't know this fully yet. Only in part can we understand. For we can have faith and hope, but the greatest of all is having Jesus.

Jesus is love. Jesus is God's love in the flesh.

Prayer
Jesus, instill your love within me that it may overflow into the place you set me. May all see you and love you and one another... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen