The Wedding Song

A Reflection on the Second Reading for February 3rd, 2019:
Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

1 Corinthians 13

Love is always patient and kind; it is never jealous; love is never boastful or conceited; it is never rude or selfish; it does not take offence, and is not resentful. Love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth; it is always ready to excuse, to trust, to hope, and to endure whatever comes.

Love does not come to an end. But if there are gifts of prophecy, the time will come when they must fail; or the gift of languages, it will not continue for ever; and knowledge – for this, too, the time will come when it must fail. For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophesying is imperfect; but once perfection comes, all imperfect things will disappear. When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and think like a child, and argue like a child, but now I am a man, all childish ways are put behind me. Now we are seeing a dim reflection in a mirror; but then we shall be seeing face to face. The knowledge that I have now is imperfect; but then I shall know as fully as I am known.

In short, there are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.

---

​When my husband Tim and I were first going through marriage prep, one of the things the priest walking us through the process talked to us about, was the readings for the wedding. Having sung at quite a few weddings (I was a wedding singer – but only the “at Church” variety), I’d heard this reading so many times it didn’t have the personal meaning I was hoping for. We chose instead a selection from the 1st Letter of John. It wasn’t in the “suggested for marriages” book, but neither were our first reading (the call of Samuel), the psalm (Psalm 40) or the Gospel (a selection from John), as I recall. We set out to use the readings to describe our sense of vocation and as a witness to the sacrificial love we intended to show one another going forward. They were unusual choices, which definitely didn’t sound like the same old 1 Cor 13 and wedding at Cana readings I’d heard so many times while singing at weddings.
 
Now as the grey hair starts to encroach and my laugh lines are becoming happy wrinkles, I can’t help but laugh at my youthful indifference to this powerful reading. What is more radical than the love described above and more truthful than the closing verses? How much could we change the world if we lived as that love to others and even ourselves? How much do each of us long to “know as fully as I am known”. This description is of the Body of Christ and its members fully knowing God, but we are each called to mirror that love in our relationships with others, however dim the reflection is of the perfect love of God.

"[W]e are each called to mirror that love in our relationships with others,
​however dim the reflection is of the perfect love of God."

Tweet

I’m still glad for the readings we chose, because they are unique to us in many ways and they still stand as a youthful cri de coeur about our love for the Kingdom and God. That said, I’m glad that this Sunday the Body of Christ across the world will have the chance to hear again our call to love and be known by God. When all is said and done; when all the dust settles; when the final trumpet has sounded and the battle is o’er, we will rest in that perfect love. Today we look through that dim reflection, but in the end we will know fully known Love.
​
​Stephanie Potter

---