Today’s Sermon in a Nutshell: “Let all that you do be done in love.” (1st Cor. 16:14)

Today’s Sermon in a Nutshell:
“Let all that you do be done in love.” (1st Cor. 16:14)

There once was a woman who decided to break off her engagement. She gave back the ring, told her fiancé that she didn’t love him and that she wanted to date other people. Six months letter, however, she sent her fiancé a letter regretting her decision.

Darling,
I was so stupid to have ever broken-up with you. I know now that you are the love of my life. I can’t live without you. You are all I think about and I just want things to go back to the way they used to be. Do you think you can ever forgive me? Please say you’ll take me back. Please, let’s get back together and get married as soon as possible. I know this is the right thing for us and the eternal bond of love we share for each other.
Love always,
Mary
P.S. Congratulations on winning the lottery.

It’s painfully obvious that this woman’s motivation was not based upon real love (except perhaps a love of money), but there are different types of love: platonic love, familial love, filial love, erotic love, self-love, unrequited love, etc. But there is another type of love – a love that goes beyond any earthly reasoning – and that is “agape love.” Agape is a universal, unwavering love that reigns supreme. It is altruistic, meaning that this type of love causes us to think of others before ones’ self. Agape love is the love which the Bible talks about most. The type of love that prompted the Good Samaritan to care for the man who was beaten and left by the side of the road. The type of love that motivated four friends to tear open a roof and lower a paralyzed man into the home where Jesus was. The type of love that compelled a widow give her last two pennies to the temple treasury. And most of all, the type of love that Christ showed as He allowed Himself to be sacrificed upon the Cross to free us from the bondage of death!

The Cross, therefore, is an icon, an image of agape love. And it is for this reason that we wear it, bless ourselves by tracing it upon us, bow down before it, and hold it as a symbol of victory by placing it high atop our churches. 

The Cross depicts that supreme, unbounding love that God had, and continues to have for us – despite all our doubts, short comings, and sinful behavior. That Cross symbolizes not only our hope in God, but His hope in us!

Fr. John