Never Having to Say You’re Sorry

“...love one another...” John 15:12

It’s easy to love our family, our friends, our brothers and sisters in community, even strangers... in theory. But what happens when they do or say something you think is wrong, unfair, thoughtless, selfish or even just plain unkind? What do we do when we need to forgive or be forgiven? 

In 1st Corinthians 13:13, Saint Paul writes, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” In heaven, we will not need hope or faith. Our joy will be complete. But there will still be love. Perfect love is described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. The famous line in that 1970 movie which states, “Love means never having to say you’re sorry,” is really quite absurd. Without forgiveness, love cannot continue. Even God forgives us again and again. I am very grateful that Luigi is able to forgive me when I do things that hurt him. How can we mend broken relationships without love and forgiveness? 

We are all imperfect people and I find it hard to write about loving when I really have no right to “preach” about loving one another. But as in anything else, we need to feed what we want to grow. If I want to grow in love, I need to find ways to love and serve others and do it.