"So," we ask, "what exactly is this 'love' St. Paul is describing?" How can we live according to true love? Quite often we ponder how we can know real love when we see it. Questions always arise, for curiosity is one of our most common attributes. Our intellect is meant to be tickled by curiosity. It is an inherent yearning, not merely for knowledge, but for understanding.
It has been said that our yearnings speak of an age long forgotten, a world of which all men and women have an inkling of knowledge but one which no one has ever seen. It is from this other world, this forgotten homeland that the occasional beckoning music of true love is heard as a whisper in the ear of a curious and ever wandering being.
It seems strange to us, for though we seem to constantly ponder love, to speak and sing of it and to restlessly seek it, we do not seem to truly know just what it is. "God is love," said St. John (1 John 4:16), "and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him." But many people are not satisfied by this, pointing both to how many different "gods" are acknowledged in the world as well as to how many evil things have been perpetrated in "God's" name.
St. Justin Martyr wrote that, "'God' is not a name, but the intuition implanted in human nature of an inexpressible reality" (2 Apology 6). This reality is the home to which we all long to return from our first moments. It is, however, not so much a place as it is a Person with whom we deeply desire to grow in relationship. This reality, "God," is not one person, but three Persons who exist in an inseparable exchange of infinite devotion and self-giving. This immortal, transcendent exchange of mutual selflessness is characterized in each Person's unending gift of Himself to the others. We know this reality by the appellation "love."
When St. Paul wrote of all that characterizes love in his first letter to the Corinthians, this is what he described. The Trinity, the eternal exchange and gift of self - GOD, is patient, kind, He is neither jealous nor pompous. He is not inflated, rude, self-seeking, quick-tempered, nor does He hold grudges. He does not rejoice over wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. And precisely because He is infinite, Love can never cease to give all that He is to His beloved. This is why "love never fails."
How are we, then, to love as Love loves? The good news is, we need not grow weary in a frenzied and scrupulous pursuit of God's ultimate plan for our lives. We need only recall that He said, "If you love me, you will obey my commandments" (John 14:15). If we love Him, we will do as He does - we will try each day to be more like He is. To do His great will we need only do good and conquer one temptation at a time. Perhaps St. Augustine put it most succinctly: "Love, and do what you will."
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