This week is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. In reflecting on this the hymn familiar to many of us, Christians Let us Love One Another, came to mind, especially the refrain - Everyone who loves is born of God. Jesus is our life. God is love.
St. Paul had a similiar thought in 1st Corinthians (13:1-7)
If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body ove so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, itis not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it dows not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (Translation: New American Bible).St. Clement, also writing to the Corinthians, made this observation:
Let the man truly possessed by the love of Christ keep his commandments. Who can express the binding power of diving love? Who can find words for the splendor of its beauty? Beyond all description are the heights to which it lifts us. Love unites us to God... (The Liturgy of the Hours, Vol. III, Tuesday, 2nd Week in Ordinary Time - 2nd reading for Office of Readings)Let us uphold this intention of Christian Unity in our prayer this week, so that the love that binds us together in Christ Jesus will some day unite around the Eucharistic table.
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