Introduction:

Man's mind today is more parched and dry than ever before. Despite the comforts and luxury of modern living, his heart is restless. He is caught up in a rat race for material advancement-the anxiety to defeat the adversary and go ahead and the fear that he may be attacked if an initial offensive is not made. But in course of time he slowly realises that whatever he may achieve as regards great successes, like putting up castle-like buildings and associating with the high and mighty, there is some dissatisfaction that keeps gnawing at his heart.

Delicious food, the cinema, alcohol, entertainment-none of these can give man contentment. His nights become sleepless. He plunges headlong into the lusts of the flesh. And at the end of his life he becomes a victim of drugs, illicit relationships and finally suicide.

If we examine closely the causes of these disasters, we will realise they could have been remedied easily. It dawns on us that the root cause of these disasters has been the lack of the nectar of God's love in the heart. We could not discover within our hearts the God who is love (cf 1Jn 4:16). We were led into defeat through the lack of love for others.

Are not such states of mind found even in those who claim to have found God and have been blessed with his gifts? Those were the times when the heart was empty of love. All that the Bible speaks to us is about this love. Let us enjoy this love through the Word who is God (cf Jn 1:1). Let us pray that God may send showers of his word into our hearts. Let us pray that he may fill our lives with the nectar of his 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...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 wrong-doing, 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...And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love"(cf 1Cor 13:1-13).

The whole of the 13th chapter of St Paul's letter to the Corinthians, deals with love. As we meditate on this passage, which can be truly described as a "Psalm of love", we can, by ourselves, become aware of our deficiencies. We will discover that we were living in a fool's paradise thinking we loved everyone. So often the love within us has been smothered by the root of bitterness (cf Heb 12:15). We have lost our patience; been unfaithful; unmerciful; envious; boastful; proud; selfish; rejoicing in injustice; unhappy with the truth; unable to suffer, with no hope. On all these occasions were we not devoid of love? Were we not mere noisy gongs or clanging cymbals?

St Paul says that having the gift of tongues or of prophecy or of great self-sacrifice is of no use unless we have love. The commandment Jesus has given us is also the same: "I give you a new commandment that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (Jn 13:34,35). This is a commandment that should be obeyed by those who wish to follow him, to love as Jesus loved us to love at the cost of our life. "If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us" (1 Jn 4:12). Love is the perfection of everything. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son" (Jn 3:16). Jesus commands us to make this perfection of love a reality in our life. The only means to do this is to love one another.

Knowledge and prophecy are not perfect. It is love that is perfect. When we reach the perfection of love, we will know God as he knows us because "God is love"(1 Jn 4:16).

Faith, hope and love abide and the greatest of these is love. When we practise this love, our bondages of sin, our problems and the evil in us will cease to exist. And by this will everyone know that we are the disciples of Christ.
 

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