March 9, 2005

Any priest who has celebrated more than just a few weddings has faced the challenge of trying to creatively and effectively preach on the very limited selection of Scripture passages usually chosen for such an occasion. Perhaps the most common passage selected by couples is the description of love by St. Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. Apart from being a truly beautiful and lyrical piece of inspired prose, I think that it is chosen so often because, sadly, it is one of the few passages of Scripture that is familiar to those who don’t often read the Bible. The challenge comes in trying to take an overly-familiar passage that can easily lend itself to sentimentality, and make it part of vigorous proclamation of the Word of God.

I faced this challenge recently at the 50th wedding anniversary Mass of a wonderful Catholic couple here in Comayagua; 1 Corinthians 13 was chosen as the second reading. All seven of their adult children are well-educated and high-powered professionals; six were present at the ceremony. I decided to start with something I thought would be familiar to professionals: a résumé. On it is found a list of the professional degrees, positions and accomplishments of the individual – all of which mean absolutely nothing to God. The more important question is: how does our spiritual résumé look? On it there are three major headings – not degrees, positions and accomplishments, but rather faith, hope and love. In addition the subheadings that interest God most are qualities like patience, kindness, humility, courtesy, meekness, forgiveness, love of truth, forbearance, trust, hope, and endurance.

As we continue our Lenten journey, perhaps we can work on polishing up our résumé – the one that matters to God.

Fr. Herald J. Brock, CFR
Local Servant, Convento San Serafin, Comayagua, Honduras
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