Q U I C K S C A N

Different Times, Different Meanings
A Constant Message

Almost 14 years ago, my future husband, Mark, and I were preparing for our wedding and we sat down to choose the readings to be included in the Mass. I already knew I wanted the reading about love from 1 Corinthians 13 as part of our ceremony. I’m sure you’ve heard it at many weddings you’ve attended. Perhaps you might even hear it this month, the most popular month for weddings.

This reading encompassed, I thought, everything I needed to know about love and what it takes to be a loving wife. And, at the time, it did.

But then, three years after we were married, we welcomed our daughter, Maddie, into our lives and this verse took on a whole different meaning. Suddenly, it spoke to so much more than just the love between a husband and wife. Now, it seemed to encompass all the different aspects of love that only a parent can know.

It started to become very clear that as time and relationships change and adapt, so too does the meaning of this verse. What once spoke to me as the formula for wedded bliss now spoke to so many other life situations— births, deaths, marriages, divorces, good times and bad.

For instance, over the past few years I have looked at this verse in light of my mother-in-law accompanying her own mother through the difficult aging process and the older woman’s eventual death last year. Each time my husband’s grandma would repeat the same story over and over, her daughter reacted with love, without anger or impatience.

Different Times, Different Meanings

When St. Paul wrote about love to the Corinthians, he probably had all of these various scenarios and more in mind. As the founder of the Church in Corinth, when he wrote this letter, he was attempting to address the wide array of questions the people there were grappling with on how to live out their newfound faith. In addition to laying out in specific terms what the way of love is, St. Paul also tackles issues such as factions among the community, spiritual gifts, idolatry and many others.

In Chapter 13, St. Paul provides the Corinthians with a clear and straightforward explanation of love. He does a pretty good job of hitting on the major points that seem to find their way into every marriage or any relationship, for that matter.

In fact, the section in between the two highlighted on this page is perhaps the most helpful. In that part, Paul speaks to those very real, rubber-meets-the-road issues that affect relationships when he writes that love “is not jealous, [love] is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:4-6).

A Constant Message

That’s the beauty of Scripture. It can speak to us at so many different moments in our lives and mean something different each time. Just as each Christian in Corinth was at a different place in their lives and struggles, so too are we, so many years later. That is why Scripture is such an ever-changing source of insight. One passage can speak to me on so many different levels: wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend.

In just one passage, I am reminded of all the things that make love work: patience, kindness, belief, hope and endurance. And I am also reminded of the things that can cause love to break down: jealousy, rudeness, being quick-tempered or quickly rejoicing in being right.

For most of us—whether married or not—mastering all those things is a lifelong journey. Thanks to the people of Corinth and St. Paul, we’ve got a pretty good head start.

Susan Hines-Brigger is an assistant editor of this publication.