Bishop Eric Menees
“Almighty and everlasting
God, give unto us the increase of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may
obtain that which thou dost promise, make us to love that which thou dost
command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and
the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”
It's hard to pray this Collect and not
immediately recognize that Archbishop Cranmer was referring to St. Paul and 1st
Corinthians 13:13: “So now faith, hope, and
love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” This past Saturday, I witnessed a little slice of heaven as Fr.
Derek Thomason, who is battling cancer, presided at the marriage service
between his son, Matthew, and Matthew’s bride, Tirzah. The Epistle reading was,
you guessed it, 1st Corinthians 13.
St. Paul lays out, in Chapter 12, a list of the
Gifts of the Holy Spirit, and in Chapter 13 he goes on to make clear that the
greatest gift of God is the gift of LOVE. Love is the gift that sustains and
supports all of the other gifts of the Spirit. As St. Paul says: "If
I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy
gong or a clanging cymbal. 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. If I give away all I have, and if I
deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Cor. 13:1-3) Therefore, if Love is the supporting Grace of
God that allows for the fruitful exercise of the Spiritual Gifts, then we
should pray earnestly for God to grant us the gift of Love. As I write this, I
am convicted that I do not ask God to grant me the gift of love often enough.
As a result, I have begun praying already that the Lord would grant me this gift
in spades.
The second half of the Collect is equally as
beautiful. It links receiving the promise of God with the desire to love God's
commands. To put this in relational terms: As Florence and I began to date and
my interest in her as a person turned into warm feelings for her, which
proceeded to turn into a deep and profound love for her, my desire to please
her grew greater and greater. In desiring to please her, I desired to do as she
would like.
If we draw this very incomplete analogy to our
relationship with our Heavenly Father, then the greater the love we have, the
greater desire we have to please Him and, thus, to follow His commandments.
In short, this collect asks for God’s grace and
assistance in fulfilling the Great Commandment: "You are to love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
might. This is the first and great commandment and the next is like unto
it; love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all
the law and the prophets." And to that I say...AMEN!
Catechism Questions 31 - 33
31. What
does it mean that Holy Scripture is inspired?
Holy Scripture is “God-breathed,” for the
biblical authors wrote under the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit to record God's
Word. (2 Timothy 3:16)
32. What
does it mean that the Bible is the Word of God?
Because the Bible is inspired by the Holy
Spirit, it is rightly called the Word of God written. God is revealed in his
mighty works and in the incarnation of our Lord, but his works and his will are
made known to us through the inspired words of Scripture. God “has spoken
through the prophets” (Nicene Creed), and continues to speak through the Bible
today. (Hebrews 1:1-2; 3:7-11; 10:15-17; 12:25-27)
33. Why
is Jesus Christ called the Word of God?
The fullness of God’s revelation is found in
Jesus Christ, who not only fulfills the Scriptures, but is himself God's Word,
the living expression of God’s mind. The Scriptures testify about him: “In the
beginning was the Word” and “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Therefore,
“ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ.” (John 1:1, 14; Jerome, Commentary
on Isaiah, prologue)
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