I don’t know if there has ever been a year that more people have wished was over than 2020. If you are like me, you spent most of it under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. Whether or not the disease affected you or your loved ones personally, most surely the “dis-ease” it unleashed touched your life significantly, either through social isolation, job changes or losses, health or financial concerns, travel restrictions, or all of the above and more. And its impact will undoubtedly persist for some time to come.
1 Corinthians 13 reveals the key ingredient that our global family needs now more than ever: love.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired. Weary. When the seriousness of the novel coronavirus first came to light, I was glued to the daily virus updates and watched with alarm as the red circles on the global COVID-19 tracker exploded in size and quantity. As the number of COVID-19 cases escalated in my city and quarantine and social distance rules grew stricter, I began reflecting on how to find peace amidst a pandemic. Although I had supported humanitarian efforts mitigating the tenth Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo the previous year, this was a more direct, protracted, and personal pandemic—one that has affected the whole world to varying degrees.
Yet, as often happens in crises, I also drew closer to God. I seemed led to St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises. As we learned how to protect ourselves outdoors, I began to enjoy close encounters with more wildlife than ever before in our eerily quiet urban spaces. I was inspired by the selfless sacrifices of frontline workers, who put their own lives at risk to help others, and how people reached out to neighbors and strangers to deliver groceries and other practical necessities.
A friend started an online “social disDance” in short order, and numerous other online support groups emerged. I wrote articles about finding peace in the pandemic and produced a COVID-19 version of my song, Nous Sommes Ensemble (French for “We’re in this Together”). Scientists and politicians cooperated on mitigations and interventions to an unprecedented degree. For a while, the world united in its fight against a common enemy.
Unfortunately, the unity didn’t seem to last as long as some people’s toilet paper hoards. We are not over the crisis yet. So, we need to rest, renew our strength, and persevere in doing good (Isaiah 40:29–31 and Galatians 6:9–10), which will—I pray—inspire our brothers and sisters in the one global family that faith, hope, and love indeed do remain—and that the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).
“To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love,” Thomas Merton wrote. “Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.”
Sometimes fear, or fatigue, or the philosophies of the world make us forget our true name. But God’s “divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness…so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature…to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love” (2 Peter 1:3–7). With diligence and spiritual disciplines, faith culminates in love. The more we live in love, the more the world will recognize that we are followers of Jesus (John 17:20–23). They will innately know that the kingdom of God is at hand, and be drawn to it (Matthew 4:23–25).
So what does it mean, practically speaking, to live as agents of God’s kingdom in the midst of a pandemic? How can we keep walking in Christian love? First Corinthians 13—the strong underlying premise of which is love—offers practical advice even now, as we recover from the initial impact of the virus and face potential future outbreaks. Human and angelic words are eloquent, but without love, they are meaningless. Prophecy and knowledge are instrumental to human destiny, but without love, the prophet is nothing. Faith powerful enough to move mountains is life-changing, but if the person of faith is unmoved by love, he or she is nothing.
To paraphrase 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, love is everything.
Love is everything.
To modernize the Apostle Paul’s love chapter in the midst of the pandemic, I imagine he might phrase 1 Corinthians 13 a bit like this:
If I get more retweets and likes than anyone, but my words lack love, it would be better if I never posted.
If I can predict the pandemic curve, sell millions of masks, and even create the best vaccine, but profit from others’ pain instead of prevent it, my net worth is the inverse of my human worth.
If I have enough faith to heal hundreds of COVID-19 patients, but am unmoved by love for them, I am nothing.
Love is everything.
Love is patient, love is kind, even when it has to stand in line.
Love is not jealous of those with the all-clear; it perseveres and self-quarantines until there’s no virus to fear.
Love is not too proud to put on a mask; it would rather protect one vulnerable person than demand convenience for itself.
Love is not rude, its gentle answers calm down wrath; it soothes the souls of those whose nerves are just about shot.
Love doesn’t hold grudges, rather it’s quick to forgive; for those who love the most are the most aware of their own sin.
Love resists the temptation to forward fake news; it checks rumours, deletes insults, and only shares life-affirming truths.
When love is weary, it rests in Jesus’ strength; there it finds the faith, hope and love to carry on, finding love the most strong.
My child, love on.
The early days of the pandemic seemed to bring out the best in us. We lived out 1 Corinthians 13—we loved each other. Many, especially frontline workers, even loved others as themselves (Matthew 22:39). In turn, caring community members supported them, delivering meals or shouldering responsibilities at home. A collaborative spirit encompassed the whole world, which united against a common foe. Scientists and world leaders shared research, response strategies, and protection measures. Millions of masks and ventilators were shipped between states and nations as cases spiked and ebbed around the world. We understood that a hot spot anywhere put people in danger everywhere, and we shared resources to attempt to vanquish the virus like a forest fire.
As the weeks turned to months, however, the edges of the collaborative spirit began to fray as the “fire” refused to give out. Some people placed individual rights over public well-being and rebelled against wearing masks. Financial support for closed businesses and unemployed workers conflicted with rising deficits and taxes. Shared research about vaccines and cures became a competitive race to earn profits and secure doses. It’s getting increasingly difficult to respond with love on the personal, political and international levels. Can another biblical truth—that we are one global family—help us navigate real-life challenges in harmony with our faith?
Yes, because not only is this truth supported by creationist, humanist, and scientific beliefs, it has the power to change the world. If we’re all members of one global family, are our differences meaningful? No. Being one global family means we are “us”; there is no “them.” If you’re my sister, can I let my profit or convenience cause you pain? No. Since we are related, your pain hurts me. If you’re my brother, can I withhold from you a vaccine that may save your life? Of course not! Our well-being is interlinked.
Being one global family means we are “us”; there is no “them”.
When we align with communal or national interests, we set sections of the global family against each other. Let’s zoom out the lens and include the whole family as we work for the good of all. A family will always have disagreements, but a healthy one learns how to resolve them peaceably. It embraces diversity, balances freedom with solidarity, and sticks together when it counts. It stands with each other, not against one other. It solves differences with words, not fists or bullets. Its primary law is love.
Living out the reality that we’re members of one global family will change the decisions we make—as individuals, nuclear families, communities, countries, regions, and universally. It will call into question the definitions and roles of countries and lead us toward cooperation instead of competition. It strengthens international efforts to ensure that all people everywhere enjoy the abundant life desired for them by God.
Most profoundly, unity makes peace on earth not only possible but the only outcome with integrity. Embodying the reality that we are one global family will deploy our riches to ensure that everyone has enough, instead of profiteering at the expense of others. Then we will recognize what true riches are—having healthy food to eat, clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, sleeping in safety without fear. It means investing our technology, young men’s and women’s lives, and a third of our national budgets on peace instead of war, on green energy instead of fossil fuels, on protecting instead of exploiting our shared earth. In other words, love.
Sisters and brothers, “let us not grow tired of doing good” but “do good to all” (Galatians 6:9-10), as our heavenly Father taught us. The world is stumbling in the darkness, and it needs our light. But the darker the night, the brighter the light shines. Let’s ask our leaders to ensure that the progress we make in health care, education, the economy, and other areas become long-term investments at home and help our global family worldwide.
©Liguori Publications, Liguorian, 2021. Please visit Liguorian.org to learn more and subscribe.
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