Thought for the Day - And the greatest of these is love

War & Peace (Peace), Candido Portinari, 1957

A Thought for the Day given at the lunchtime service of Holy Communion at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Wednesday 18th September 2014 based on the text of 1 Corinthians 13

A reflection on the primacy of love in the Christian life, inspired by the writing of Dag Hammarskjöld who died on this day in 1961.

On this day in 1961, Dag Hammarskjöld was killed in a plane crash. The cause of the tragedy remains a mystery. The Swedish economist and diplomat grew up in a distinguished political family and became the second Secretary General of the United Nations in 1953 - the youngest person to hold the position. He soon gained a reputation as a peacemaker. He died while en-route to mediate in the Congo Crisis; in which civil unrest in the newly independent central African country was being fuelled by both sides in the Cold War.  

Hammarskjöld was described by John F Kennedy as the greatest statesman of the century and remains one of only two people to have been awarded a Nobel Prize posthumously. 

Since the age of twenty five he had kept a diary he titled “Markings”. The pages are not filled with shocking revelations about the bickering personalities he encountered while on the world stage. Rather, they offer an anthology of thoughts, sayings and poems that read like one of the Wisdom books of the bible. Described in his own words as “negotiations with myself—and with God” and published shortly after his death, Markings is regarded by many as a modern spiritual classic. In the preface, W.H.Auden explains that the text is the attempt of a professional man of action to unite in one life his action with belief. 

The passage from St Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians that we just heard has also been described as a poetic masterpiece and was written to the same end. To guide the fledgling church away from disputes and disagreements in doctrine and practice - to encourage its members to unite their actions with their beliefs.

A church that preaches and prays and prophesises about faith and charity but does not act in love - Paul says - is nothing. Its work means nothing. Love is the foundation of every Christian community because God is love and he loves us - and the actions of the church and its members must reflect the reality of that belief. 

It’s a stark wake up call to us all. 

Unless we act in love - with patience, kindness, humility, without irritation or jealousy or resentment, our lives - all of this - is all meaningless. It counts for nothing.

While he rarely spoke of it in public, Dag Hammarskjöld’s private “Markings” reveal he understood this struggle all too well. One of the last entries in his diary reads: 

“Give me a pure heart that I may see Thee.
A humble heart that I may hear Thee,
A heart of love that I may serve Thee,
A heart of faith that I may abide in Thee.”

Amen. 
 

Image : War & Peace (Peace), Candido Portinari, 1957