Nobody in Paul’s day said or thought that Caesar Augustus loved them and gave himself for them. But Paul said this about Jesus. Nobody in Paul’s day said or thought that the various gods of Rome truly cared for them and loved them. At best the gods were to be appeased by various sacrifices and rituals so as not to incur their wrath. But Paul’s contemporary and friend, John, could write the daring and unheard of words: “God is love” (1 John 4:8).

Fear. How many of us are crippled by it in one way or another? Fear for the future of a son or daughter. Fear of getting sick. Fear about our financial future. Fear of losing a job. Fear of not finding a job. Fear of not finding a spouse. Fear of dying. Fear of…you name it. Of the many arrows in the enemy’s quiver, fear is one of his sharpest.

When Paul writes that love bears all things he means that love “hides”, or “keeps confidential” certain things about others. George Montague, in his excellent commentary on this letter, offers a more poetic translation: “Love throws a cloak of silence over what is displeasing in another person.” Uh…this isn’t exactly what I do. Far too often, to my shame, I speak about and expose the things that are displeasing in others. And yet, Paul says we are not to do this. Once again, what an extraordinary thing that God doesn’t do this about us — can you imagine?!

Paul would have been standing right in the area where we were celebrating Mass. Huge crowds of people would have been walking all around him and the court officials surrounding him, some stopping to look and listen, just as people were stopping and looking at our strange group of pilgrims, gathered around a makeshift altar in the sun.