1 Cor 12:31 - 13:13 / Luke 7:31-35
We know how easy it is to chop off a branch from a tree with a sharp axe, yet we also know it is impossible to re-attach the branch back to the tree.
When power and might are abused and misused, then the consequences are offensive and destructive.
Hence we know that it is easier to break than to repair; it is easier to hurt than to heal; it is easier to hate than to love.
Yes, it is easier to divide and destroy than to unite and reconcile, and with physical power and military might, division and destruction is made very much easier.
Yet the real power and might lies in love and in its work of uniting and reconciling and healing.
In the 1st reading, St. Paul expressed the power of love in humble and simple and quiet ways like patience and kindness, truthfulness and endurance, trusting and hoping, and also not being jealous or boastful or conceited or rude or selfish.
Yes it is with love that we are also able to recognize loving people who speak and live by truth, even though the world might ridicule them or push them aside.
As Jesus said in the gospel, the world is "like children shouting to one another while they sit in the market place" and scorns the simplicity and the humility of love.
Yet just as Wisdom is proved right by all her children, so the power of love to heal and reconcile will prove to be mightier than the sword that just cuts and destroys.
May we always choose the way of love and trust and hope in Jesus, our Lord of love.