1 Corinthians 13:1-13
The Greatest of Virtues
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
St. Paul wrote about the virtues of love...And his writing is in a Spiritual Sense, I believe...If in speaking I know how to speak in many languages and I am angelic as well, but do not have love, I am nothing more than a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal...If I have the gift of prophecy, can see things and have the ability to understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and have all the faith necessary to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing...If I give away everything I have away to feed the poor and hand over my body to be burned, but do not have love, I achieve nothing...Love is patient; love is charitable and love is kind...Love is not envious; love does not have an inflated opinion of itself; love is not filled with its own importance...Love is never rude; love does not seek its own advantage...Love does not focus or retain anger; neither does it brood over setbacks...Love is forgiving...Love does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in the Truth...Love helps us get through different things, love hopes in all the goodness of things, and love endures all things...Love never fails...Prophecies will eventually cease, tongues will become silent, and knowledge will pass away, for our knowledge is only partial and our prophesying is only partial; but when we encounter what is Perfect, that which is imperfect will pass away...When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, think like a child, and reason like a child...However, when I became a man, I put all childish ways aside...At the present time we see indistinctly, as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face...My knowledge is only partial now; one day when I meet our Maker, He will fully know, I will know more...What I know now are the three things that endure through time...These three virtues are faith, hope, and love...The greatest of these is love...
Author C. S. Lewis wrote these things about love...“To love at all is to be vulnerable...Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken...If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal...Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements...Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness...But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change...It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable...To love is to be vulnerable.”...“Do not waste time bothering whether you “love” your neighbor; act as if you did...As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets...When you are behaving as if you loved someone you will presently come to love him.”...“Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing...There are many things below it, but there are also things above it...You cannot make it the basis of a whole life.”...“And in fact, whatever people say, the state called ‘being in love’ usually does not last...If the old fairy-tale ending ‘They lived happily ever after’ is taken to mean ‘They felt for the next fifty years exactly as they felt the day before they were married,’ then it says what probably never was nor ever would be true, and would be highly undesirable if it were...Who could bear to live in that excitement for even five years?...What would become of your work, your appetite, your sleep, your friendships?”...“of course, ceasing to be ‘in love’ need not mean ceasing to love...Love in this second sense — love as distinct from ‘being in love’ — is not merely a feeling...It is a deep unity, maintained by the will and deliberately strengthened by habit; reinforced by (in Christian marriages) the grace which both partners ask, and receive, from God.”...“They can have this love for each other even at those moments when they do not like each other; as you love yourself even when you do not like yourself...They can retain this love even when each would easily, if they allowed themselves, be ‘in love’ with someone else....‘Being in love’ first moved them to promise fidelity: this quieter love enables them to keep the promise...It is on this love that the engine of marriage is run: being in love was the explosion that started it.”...“Affection is responsible for nine-tenths of whatever solid and durable happiness there is in our lives”...“Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”...“Gratitude looks to the Past and love to the Present; fear, avarice, lust, and ambition look ahead.”...“Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal.”...“To love at all is to be vulnerable.”...