Love Is A Verb: We Can See It Only In Action

Corinthians 13: 1-13 is an ancient hymn of love. Love is a verb; and it is a serious responsibility. Think of St John the Evangelist. He was one of the most hostile, intolerant men among the apostles; he wanted to bring down fire to burn down an entire village because they refused to accept Jesus. But later he became the most loved one.

Things changed at a Eucharistic table: John was leaning on the bosom of the Lord. The feminine word bosom is used instead of chest to highlight the feminine qualities of the Lord. Here head surrenders to the heart, the masculine surrenders to the feminine. Rigid calculations, logic, and reason of John surrender to poetry and aesthetics of the Lord. We must lean on to the bosom of the Lord and listen. John having listened to the heart of Jesus remains with Jesus till the very end, even through the time of crucifixion.

The relationship between Jesus and John became so very beautiful that it was to him Jesus entrusted his mother. Tradition has it that up to his old age he just remained home with Mother Mary, taking care of what was entrusted to him. Love is content with doing even small things entrusted to someone. St. Conrad of Parzham was a German Capuchin brother. He spent 55 years in a small parlour room of the friary just attending to the small needs of people who come, and the rest of the time he would sit gazing at the tabernacle through a tiny hole on the wall. When Pope John Paul II (now saint) visited that town, the only place he insisted on visiting was the room where this friar quietly spent his entire life. Many live and die attending with love to the small responsibilities entrusted to them so very beautifully.

John took Mary home with him. People who were strangers earlier have become a family. Here we have the seeds of community life. A Christian relationship is deeper than biology and ethnicity. The film Shoplifters by Director Hirokazu Koreeda may be an inspiration here for the idea of family. Even though the family is not related by blood, they rely on and support each other like any other family. As such, Shoplifters raises questions about what it truly means to be a family and whether blood ties are part of the equation.

For john love was a fountain flowing out of our God. John saw it, experienced it, and surrendered to it. Thus in his letter John says, “He has loved us first.” Francis too saw it, experienced it, and surrendered to it. Thus he cried out, ‘love is not loved.’ He looked like a lunatic almost.

On the Easter morning, hearing the reports of the women they (Peter and John) ran to the tomb of Jesus. John reached first, but John waited and gave way to Peter. To love is to give way. To give way is the most dignified way. It is a new kind of culture.

After completing with love the responsibility entrusted to him by the Lord, in his old age he was taken to an Island called Patmos, it was an island of stone guarries, he in his old age worked in the quarries, cutting stones. Eventually it was from that island John wrote the Book of Revelations, but the Book of Revelations has no record of the wrong doings done to him; “love keep no record of wrong doings.”

Others came in search of him and took him to neighbouring islands to preach and inspire. He often did not use the words, Church, Christ, or even God (though we find it a few times in his Gospels); but just kept repeating the word ‘agape’ - Christian love, as distinct from erotic love or simple affection.

Notes taken during my annual retreat, preached by Bobby Jose Kattikad, Capuchin.

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