I spent quite some time musing about what to write for this blog posting. I wasn't in the Sanctuary on Sunday as I had a Church School class to teach. On Saturday, before turning to my lesson for the week, I had a distinct thought that the message in 1st Corinthians 13:13 would make for a good class discussion - faith, hope and love, with the greatest of the three being love. It was just a thought, seemingly out of nowhere. Still, perhaps more appropriate would be to call it a hint.

That hint became a bit more pointed when I realized the Church School's "words to remember" for the week were from, well, 1st Corinthians 13:13! That really got me thinking about the interplay of faith, hope and love. They really are the grandest of themes, the ones we spend a lifetime grasping and parsing and framing. They are the themes that, at different points in time, we are either running from or running towards. As much by their absence as by their presence, they are the themes that animate us as humans, that keep us moving.

There was a lot of moving after church on Sunday - errands to run, food to prepare, play time, family time, planning time. An evening, a night, and Monday was upon me. Still, I mused about what to write. I got in the car musing, and turned on the radio. The program on all things music - Q - was on CBC radio. The host, Tom Power, was interviewing Roger Waters, one of the founding members of Pink Floyd. The words of Roger Waters as I turned the radio on were this: "... I am always ready to be wrong about anything and everything, but I do know what I feel and I do know that I'm right that the only thing we have to hold on to is our love for others, and the potential that we, all of us human beings, have to empathize with the predicament of others, and that we have to act upon it ..."

The words of Roger Waters brought back Sunday; brought back 1st Corinthians 13:13; and above all, brought back the hints about love - its ability to animate, its place as a constant within the human condition. 

In the midst of an imperfect world, our love is Christ in action. It is known within the Church, and sensed without it. It is everywhere needed and can be everywhere available. As Christians, we are called to that love, for Christ has rendered it familiar to us. Our faith in Him, and our hope in the resurrection, establishes a direct link to a love that knows no strangers, no others, no enemies, no foreigners. 

We are called to be present, to be animated and to animate, with that love. We are called to a love that can not only bind wounds, but can stop the wounding. It is a love without discretion. A truly radical love. A love unyielding. Love, constantly.

- Jidé A.