NOTES for Co1 13:3

Why Paul puts so high the charity? Why even faithfulness till death in itself, turns out little for the Kingdom without charity? Of course, we could say many things on what is faith, including the religious faith without charity. Moreover, there is probably no sense today to speak much about it: the examples of religious fanaticism (and this is what it is, in fact, the fullness of faith without a lesser grain of charity) are in front of the eyes of all. It is obvious that such a faith only destroys man, not talking of the fact that it is rather often dangerous for the close relations. But the problem is probably not only in it. The apostle indeed, does not probably want to speak here about only this human charity, which was known in all times, but also about the love of the Kingdom, witnessed by Jesus Himself, in particular at the Last Supper. And it obliges a little to look otherwise on the words.

Indeed, this charity, about which speaks, including, and also the Bible, is itself, above all, a relationship, an intention, directed on the neighbor and carrying in itself the desire to do good to this neighbor. Of course, such an intention can be accompanied by reflections, and feelings, but one and another are only the complement to the main part. Jesus speaks of something big, He speaks about the Kingdom, where charity is this spiritual environment, inside which we build all the relationships binding the inhabitants of the Kingdom.

We could call the charity in a certain sense the spiritual substance of the Kingdom, and the one who is not involved in this charity, in fact will not be also involved in the Kingdom. And then everything is meaningless: because, the sense of the Christian life consists only of it, to join the life of the Kingdom. The Christian needs nothing else, and everything is useless. And Paul himself, living the life of the Kingdom, understands that of course perfectly. And, as seen, does not get tired to remind these fundamental things for the Christian life to the coreligionists.

Today's reading from the Epistle to the Corinthians is often called the hymn to love. The apostle Paul tells us that without love nothing has meaning. In the opening verses he describes utterly astonishing gifts: speaking in the tongues of angels, the gift of prophecy, faith able to move mountains... How wonderful! But without love... Let us consider what becomes of all these gifts without love. Speaking in tongues? But with whom would one speak without love? Without love, it simply makes no sense to speak either with people or, still less, with angels. Moving mountains? To what end? Just like that, for aesthetic effect? For lack of anything else to do? Without love, moving mountains would be an utterly meaningless occupation. Love is the only thing that gives meaning to every gift and every action. And the most frightening thing is that love cannot be “invented” or summoned up in one's heart by artificial means... Let us ask the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts of stone into living hearts of flesh and to grant us love.

Continuing his reflections on the Church, Paul composes a true hymn to love. In composing it, the apostle undoubtedly must have remembered the Savior's words about the commandment of love, spoken during the Last Supper, words Paul could not have failed to know. And yet the assertion that any efforts are meaningless in the absence of love makes one stop and think (vv. 1-3). After all, the matter is undoubtedly the actions of a righteous person, and actions that are deeply motivated. Why, then, are they worthless in themselves, despite the rightness of the motivation, if there is no love? The answer to this question is not hard to find in the second part of the hymn (vv. 4-7). Indeed, to treat people as described here is completely impossible if one remains within the framework of our not yet transfigured world. One can love this way only by dwelling in the Kingdom and living its life.

Then it becomes clear what love the apostle is speaking about in the first part of his remarkable hymn. The matter is not the love that is possible even among fallen people in our not yet transfigured world. The matter is the love of the Kingdom, the love that permeates all relationships here, being their foundation and driving force. In our not yet fully transfigured world, love is possible as an act of the will and as a relationship. We love those to whom we actively wish good.

But the very fabric of interpersonal relationships in our not yet transfigured world has a different nature; it is not identical with love, though sometimes it can bear love. In the Kingdom, however, every relationship is by definition an act of love. No other forms of relationship are possible there in principle; the nature of the Kingdom does not allow them. And if a person does not have such love, it means only one thing: such a person has not yet touched the Kingdom. Therefore, whatever he may do, even from the highest motives, he cannot enter the Kingdom until love becomes for him the sole spiritual foundation of all life and all relationships, both with God and with neighbors. The sign of this change can be the kind of attitude toward life and toward people that is described in the second part of the hymn Paul wrote.