It has been rough. She has not been getting sleep lately. With her job, the return of her young adult son, and his starting a new job, she stays up and washes his only work shirt. She is faithful to her love for him. Few of those that pay for lotto tickets or gas know this about her. Her clerk job pays a little more than minimum wage, but she does what she can to make life better for her family. Her son will make a better life; her love will see to it.
Is faith about agreeing with certain propositions or about just ideas? Is faith about a moral code? Is faith about being a group?
Yes, faith incorporates all of those, yet none of them matter if they miss another. Yes, believing, behaving or belonging seem to capture the essence of faith, but they are nothing with out being. Faith should transform who we are, and only love can transforms us to the core. Like when St Paul’s truth about lacking love reduces the rest to meaningless chatter, none of the three mentioned matter a whole lot without without love. For Christians, being means being alive in Christ, which means being filled with love for God and other. St Paul is correct, if you have lov,e the rest of the 'B's' take care of themselves, without love the other three become useless.
We don’t talk about what it means to have a good life anymore. The unspoken assumption is that good life has to do with success and success is about money, power and fame. Yet, the quiet heroes of love go unnoticed. In the first century that was the central question. Many gave different answers to that question. The one the speak to me most is from Jesus, “Follow me to be filled with love, follow me to understand God, follow me to be alive.” To be, the neglected B, is the most important. To be filled with the love of Jesus Christ, the rest of the Bs come. So be it. (the literal meaning of Amen).
