And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
I Corinthians 13:2
Here is an existential question to ponder on: Do you live for yourself, or for the others?
What does that mean? It means is the main thrust of your life doing things for your own benefit, or for the benefit of others? If the main focus of our life is doing things for our own good, that means that we are shallow, inward focused (narcissistic) and that whatever we did will quickly be forgotten once we are dead, forgotten by others, and most especially forgotten by God.
I have been fortunate to have had many mentors in my life, people who poured into me, whether it was teaching me, modeling behavior, setting an example, or saying something memorable. As I get older, I appreciate more the things that I have been taught and the people who taught those things to me. Many of these mentors have now passed on, and I think of them often. I suppose that one of the greatest accolades a person can receive is to be remembered when they are no longer alive. Because to be remembered means that the person who has passed on lived at least some of their life for someone else, the person remembering them.
Saint Paul, in I Corinthians 13:2, again gives out examples of things people achieve in life. Prophetic powers would seem to mean the ability to see into the future. While we don’t call people prophets, we do identify people as visionaries, people who forecast the future, from perspectives of business, economics, politics, sports, and so many other angles. These are the people who are on the cutting edge of new technology, new ideas, and identify the “next best thing.” Visionaries run companies, shape teams, create new things, and allow the world to advance.
To understand mysteries is the ability to explore things that are unknown by others. That means someone who uses forensics to solve crimes, or who looks at the stars in the universe, or who seeks to understand previously unknown nuances in science and medicine. Imagine being the person who finds the cure for a disease. Why does someone want to do that? So, they can patent a treatment and become rich? Or is it to cure those who are sick? Does a person take all the credit for medical advancement, or does one see his or her mind and hands as vessels of healing that ultimately comes from God?
If healing is all about making a name for oneself in the medical community and making money doing that, then achievement becomes narcissistic. But if healing is all about care for the others and the glory of God, then medicine becomes ministry, and the work becomes holy.
Acquiring knowledge is a lifetime pursuit. No one will ever understand all mysteries and all knowledge, no matter how long they live or how smart they are. So if we are acquiring knowledge for our own benefit, or even for the benefit of others, we can still fall short of the glory of God. Because no one is omniscient. We cannot know everything. We cannot even know a fraction of anything. Because God is so great and knows more than the cumulative society. Thus, what we know we should feel privileged to know and grateful to God for whatever we know, and we should seek to serve God with what we know. Because if all knowledge is used only for personal gain, in the end the knowledge dies with us, and the things we have gained are no longer ours either.
If one has all faith so as to move mountains. surely, he or she must be filled with love. Not necessarily. One can have a lot of faith and still fall short of the mark. Just like a runner can sprint out to the front of the pack in a race and still stumble at the end. There are three important questions we must ask ourselves, especially in times of difficulty:
- Do you believe in God?
- Do you believe in the goodness of God?
- Do you believe that God is good to you?
I often struggle with my own faith when I see that last mountain that faithful people must climb in their lives, especially when it is horrific illness. I have seen faithful people struggle with so much physical pain at the end of their lives that there is a temptation to fall into despair, like the phrase “it is darkest before the dawn.” And many times I pray for and encourage people not to lose faith at the last turn of the race, even those the pain seems catastrophic. It takes a lot of love for God to answer those last two questions on your worst day—do you believe in the goodness of God and do you believe that God is still good to you.
Back to the original questions, do you live for yourself, or for the others? In living for the others, we learn to live for God. In living for God, we learn to live for the others. In living for ourselves, it becomes easy to push the others and God right out of the picture. Which means, as St. Paul writes in I Corinthians 13:2, if we have prophetic powers, understand mysteries, have lots of knowledge and even if we have lots of faith, enough faith to even move mountains, if we do not have love, then we truly have nothing. This is why in our pursuit of knowledge, our pursuit of money, our pursuit of fame, and even in our pursuit of faith, there has to be a pursuit of love. Because at some point, knowledge, money and fame will cease and all that we will take with us to Judgment Seat of Christ will be the record of how much we loved God and how much we served others.
Lord, thank You for the gift of today. While I may look and think for the future, help me to keep my focus on the needs of today. As I seek to learn more about You and about other things, help me focus not only on acquiring knowledge but applying it with love. Help me as I seek to grow in my faith, and help me to keep my focus not just on the things of the faith, but on You, the center of my faith. May I live for you, and for others, today and always. Amen.
Choose to love. Choose to live for God. Choose to live for others.
