(click
here
for music.)The Speech of St. Paul
(click
here
for music.)
My friend Gilgamesh! Had you been born in the Age of Salvation, you would perhaps have been privileged to hear my writings at your weddings. Perhaps you would have heard in particular my little description of love that I dashed off to Corinth. Love is patient, kind. You know the rest, I’m sure. I believe it is no coincidence that my description is the one that is read at the most important of all celebrations of love: the wedding. The wedding is indeed the point at which two people pick each other to love for life, and it is by my words that they choose to consecrate that love.
Indeed! Is there any more ideal representation of what love is than the interactions of a husband and his wife? Love indeed makes them patient, kind, and content. Because of it, they are not envious, they do not put on airs, and they do not boast. They wake up in the morning and are able to be there for each other completely! Is this not love? The ability to devote one’s entire self to the happiness of another?
So, my friend Gilgamesh, perhaps if you exhibited more of the characteristics
that I have ascribed to love, you would not be so miserable, nor so easily defeated in your quest for love.
This is the meaning of love. You have spent your entire life absorbed in yourself. The trick is to
give yourself to someone else.
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