Love Covers a Multitude of Sins
When I was young, I hated “choose your own adventure” novels. Before I ever was an English major, I saw alternate endings as “cop-outs” for readers. Already, even as a young boy, I was developing a sense of authorial intent, realizing that writers often want either this specific meaning or that specific meaning. However, this either-or dichotomy of looking at meaning in readings is antithetical in terms of the Church, particularly when it comes to the daily readings of the Mass. The Church always wants us to hold things together that are in tension. The two most important words in the Catholic Church are: both-and, not either-or (i.e., Jesus is both God and Man [hypostatic union]; the Sacraments are both matter [physical] and form [spiritual]; the Church is both made up of saints and sinners, etc.).
Fortunately, the Church provides us with a tension in today’s readings for both the 3rd Tuesday of Lent and the readings for the Optional Memorial of St. Patrick.
Thanks be to God that the Church allows us to choose our own adventure today in the liturgical readings because the first readings for both Masses options are spectacular, helping us understand the will of God, today.
In the first reading for the 3rd Tuesday of Lent, the prophet Daniel speaks of Azariah (also known as Abednego) standing up in the midst of the fire, praying:
Azariah speaks from the fire that King Nebuchadnezzar throws himself, Shadrach, and Meshach into for being followers of the God of Israel. The three men are spared death in the midst of the fire because they will not blaspheme the one, true God; however, Abednego’s plea senses, at least implicitly, that the three of them are not perfect, and are, in some sense, brought low like the rest of Israel because of their sins ‘for we are reduced...because of our sins’. Azariah prays that they be spared because of the covenant God made with Abraham, not because of their particular worthiness.
The Lord hears Abednego’s prayer and spares them because of his faithfulness to the covenant.
Daniel’s companions’ anguish in the midst of the fire might be akin to the anguish we may feel in these days of self-quarantine, for ‘we [too, feel] reduced…[with] no burnt offering...to find favor with you’. All of us are feeling the “fire” of this trial of COVID-19 in the United States in ways acutely unexpected: we walk around grocery stores and see empty shelves; we check our retirement funds and see significant losses; we gaze at our neighbor in the street and wonder if they are carrying the coronavirus. Indeed, we are ‘reduced’ low in our own days.
However, the peace of Azariah is something we should try and emulate during these days. How though? What does it mean to be at peace in the midst of a fire, a trial?
Azariah had peace of heart because he loved the Lord well. “Perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4: 18). Azariah understood, despite his own sinfulness, that if he remained steadfast in perfect love for the true God of Israel that he wouldn’t be disappointed. Similarly, we need to ask for the grace that our love may increase in these days of the coronavirus outbreak. Many of us are so fortunate, both materially and spiritually, that we sometimes forget this fact, until we see, firsthand, the suffering of others during this pandemic.
The Lord’s ask of us in these days of self-quarantine is the same thing he asks of us everyday (“because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb 13: 8), which is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus tells the Pharisees this is the whole of the Law and the Prophets, yet we might find little energy oftentimes to follow these two commandments, particularly during times of trial and desolation like the ones we are experiencing. Therefore, how do we get this energy to love God and others well?
The answer, I think, lies in the first reading for the Optional Memorial of St. Patrick. If we choose the other adventure in today’s liturgical readings, then the answer becomes quite clear.
There, St. Peter, in his first letter, says “Be serious and sober-minded so that you may be able to pray. Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pt 4: 7-8). Our incentive to love God and neighbor is that it covers not a little, but a ‘multitude of sins’. If love covers a multitude of past sins, then it seems when so many are struggling to stay afloat in the midst of COVID-19, that God is calling us to love better. Our love has grown cold, and our Father wants to wake us up to the fact that we are all connected to one another as one global family. Let us awake and listen to the voice of the Father calling us in the desert of our self-quarantine to a deeper love for Himself and others. Let us make a resolution to do something concrete in our interior life and something concrete in charity for the good of our neighbor.
Author: Adam Hauser, English Department
Fortunately, the Church provides us with a tension in today’s readings for both the 3rd Tuesday of Lent and the readings for the Optional Memorial of St. Patrick.
Thanks be to God that the Church allows us to choose our own adventure today in the liturgical readings because the first readings for both Masses options are spectacular, helping us understand the will of God, today.
In the first reading for the 3rd Tuesday of Lent, the prophet Daniel speaks of Azariah (also known as Abednego) standing up in the midst of the fire, praying:
“Do not take away your mercy from us, for the sake of Abraham, your beloved...For we are reduced, O Lord...because of our sins. We have in our day no prince, prophet, or leader, no burnt offering, sacrifice, oblation, or incense, no place to offer first fruits, to find favor with you. But with contrite heart and humble spirit let us be received” (Dan 3: 34-43).
Azariah speaks from the fire that King Nebuchadnezzar throws himself, Shadrach, and Meshach into for being followers of the God of Israel. The three men are spared death in the midst of the fire because they will not blaspheme the one, true God; however, Abednego’s plea senses, at least implicitly, that the three of them are not perfect, and are, in some sense, brought low like the rest of Israel because of their sins ‘for we are reduced...because of our sins’. Azariah prays that they be spared because of the covenant God made with Abraham, not because of their particular worthiness.
The Lord hears Abednego’s prayer and spares them because of his faithfulness to the covenant.
Daniel’s companions’ anguish in the midst of the fire might be akin to the anguish we may feel in these days of self-quarantine, for ‘we [too, feel] reduced…[with] no burnt offering...to find favor with you’. All of us are feeling the “fire” of this trial of COVID-19 in the United States in ways acutely unexpected: we walk around grocery stores and see empty shelves; we check our retirement funds and see significant losses; we gaze at our neighbor in the street and wonder if they are carrying the coronavirus. Indeed, we are ‘reduced’ low in our own days.
However, the peace of Azariah is something we should try and emulate during these days. How though? What does it mean to be at peace in the midst of a fire, a trial?
Azariah had peace of heart because he loved the Lord well. “Perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4: 18). Azariah understood, despite his own sinfulness, that if he remained steadfast in perfect love for the true God of Israel that he wouldn’t be disappointed. Similarly, we need to ask for the grace that our love may increase in these days of the coronavirus outbreak. Many of us are so fortunate, both materially and spiritually, that we sometimes forget this fact, until we see, firsthand, the suffering of others during this pandemic.
The Lord’s ask of us in these days of self-quarantine is the same thing he asks of us everyday (“because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb 13: 8), which is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus tells the Pharisees this is the whole of the Law and the Prophets, yet we might find little energy oftentimes to follow these two commandments, particularly during times of trial and desolation like the ones we are experiencing. Therefore, how do we get this energy to love God and others well?
The answer, I think, lies in the first reading for the Optional Memorial of St. Patrick. If we choose the other adventure in today’s liturgical readings, then the answer becomes quite clear.
There, St. Peter, in his first letter, says “Be serious and sober-minded so that you may be able to pray. Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins” (1 Pt 4: 7-8). Our incentive to love God and neighbor is that it covers not a little, but a ‘multitude of sins’. If love covers a multitude of past sins, then it seems when so many are struggling to stay afloat in the midst of COVID-19, that God is calling us to love better. Our love has grown cold, and our Father wants to wake us up to the fact that we are all connected to one another as one global family. Let us awake and listen to the voice of the Father calling us in the desert of our self-quarantine to a deeper love for Himself and others. Let us make a resolution to do something concrete in our interior life and something concrete in charity for the good of our neighbor.
Author: Adam Hauser, English Department
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