September 17, 2008
Wednesday of the Twenty-Fourth Week of Ordinary Time
By
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. (1 Corinthians 13:8-10)
“For John the Baptist came neither eating food nor drinking wine, and you said, ‘He is possessed by a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking and you said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’ But wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” (Luke 7:33-35)
Piety
Lord, You never fail me. I praise Your name and all You do. Help me to understand Your perfection and to strive to emulate it as best I can. Amen.
Study
There was a time that if you went to a wedding—Catholic, Protestant, nondenominational—you could count on hearing all or some of today’s reading from 1 Corinthians. You know, all that good idealistic stuff about being nothing without love; about love being patient and kind; about love never failing and being even greater than faith and hope. You usually also heard the part about putting away childish things.
Those are all great thoughts for weddings and knickknack mottos, but human beings do fail. We can be impatient and quick-tempered and jealous and self-serving and the rest. Jesus knew that; he tells us in today’s Gospel reading that people said John the Baptist was possessed because he didn’t eat food or drink wine, and that Christ himself was criticized for the company he kept and for being a party guy.
The passage from 1 Corinthians we don’t hear at weddings—about knowledge, prophecies, and tongues coming to nothing, because “we know only partially and we prophesy partially”—is worth some prayer time. Not that we are to beat our chests and lament about our failings and imperfections incessantly; rather, Paul lets us know that “when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.” And when the perfect comes and the partial has passed away, perhaps we, like Christ, will love more fully and completely. Perhaps, as we promise to love forever, we can make a much more difficult promise: to love unconditionally in the now.
Action
With a loved one or your group reunion, discuss what you believe Paul means when he writes: “When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.”
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