Love Bears All Things

Imagine running to your car, pushing a cart of groceries in a rainstorm.

The day started out so sunny, and after you entered the store, the storm clouds gathered unexpectedly.

As you check out, the rain starts to fall, and you hope to get to your car as dry as possible.

Then, it really starts to pour as you exit the store.

You run to the car behind your grocery cart.

Both of your hands are holding on to the handle as the raindrops fall faster and heavier.

You can’t see the possibility of holding an umbrella, so you bear with the downpour until you get inside your car with your wet grocery bags.

The last thing you expected was to get soaked on what started out as a bright, clear morning.

The book “Love: 100 beautiful and inspirational meditations” contains a chapter on each of the aspects of love found in the thirteenth chapter of St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians.

Published in 2019 by Magnificat Inc., the book contains reflections by prominent theologians from the first, second, and third millennia.

There are ten meditations on “Love Bears All Things.”

Half of those meditations all focus on the necessity and power of forgiveness.

One meditation, “The Paradox of Pardon,” was written by G.K. Chesterton, one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century.

Here is a quote from his meditation:

“Christianity came in here as before, it came in startlingly with a sword, and clove one thing from another, it divided the crime from the criminal. The criminal we must forgive unto seventy times seven. The crime we must not forgive at all…We must be much more angry with theft than before, and yet much kinder to thieves than before.

There was room for wrath and love to run wild. And the more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had established a rule and order, the chief aim of that order was to give room for good things to run wild.”

Imagine a place and society where good things run wild!

Is that too much to bear?

Bearing involves carrying and holding.

With all of the skepticism, cynicism, doubt, and disbelief, dodging the unexpected downpours of life and getting soaked.

It takes courage, endurance, and perseverance to carry and hold thoughts of the possibility of generosity and love when storms hit.

It may be difficult to forgive the injuries of others.

It is even more challenging to pardon our own lack of belief that good things can run wild and with abandon.

Yet, that is what we must do – allow the possibility of good things running wild – and become a runner right along with them – in downpours and sunshine.

Let’s go on to the next attribute of love.

Click on the underlined text to read about “Love Believes All Things.”