The fourth candle is for Love.
Here is the beautiful poem 'Love came down at Christmas' written by Christina Rossetti, sung to the Irish melody Gartan by by Chet Valley Churches;
I remember reading the famous 'Love' chapter in the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 13, at my goddaughter's wedding;
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. 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. 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.
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 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. 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.
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
At my cousin's wedding some years earlier, they had the same reading, and the sermon is one of the few I remember. The preacher suggested you replace the word 'Love' with 'God'.
Ah, lovely.
Then he suggested you replace the word 'Love' in the middle section with 'I';
I am patient, I am kind, and so on.
Ah, rather more challenging. I took this as a statement of intent, and revisit this message from time to time.
O Antiphon for 22nd December
Latin:
O Rex Gentium, et desideratus earum,
lapisque angularis, qui facis utraque unum:
veni, et salva hominem,
quem de limo formasti.
English:
O King of the nations, and their desire,
the cornerstone making both one:
Come and save the human race,
which you fashioned from clay.
Challenging, indeed.
ReplyDeleteI've swallowed many a comment which was better left unsaid, thanks to this sermon.
Delete