One day at a particularly quiet moment in the normally noisy newsroom where he worked, young H. L. Mencken shouted at the top of his lungs, "It's coming in the doors!" Needless to say, everyone stopped and looked in his direction.
"It's up to the bottom of the desks!" said Mencken as he rose to his feet. "It's up to the seats of our chairs!" he shouted as he jumped onto his chair.
"What are you talking about?" asked one of his incredulous colleagues.
"It's up to the tops of our desks!" shouted Mencken as he jumped to the top of his desk.
"What do you mean?" rang a chorus of shouts.
"Mediocrity!" came the caustic reply. "We're drowning in mediocrity!" he shouted over and over as he jumped from the desk and rushed out the door, never to return.
H. L. Mencken was a prophet far ahead of his time. If ever there was a shout that would ring true for our society, it is this one, "We're drowning in a sea of mediocrity."
Who can name a worthy role model for our young people? Who can name a politician they admire without reservation? Who can even find a decent show to watch on television? We flip through 40 channels on our remote controls and what do we end up saying? "There's nothing to watch." Mediocrity " mediocrity everywhere.
Thus St. Paul's words at the end of the twelfth chapter of I Corinthians sound sweet to our ears, "But I will show you a more excellent way." Thank God! In this shallow world how our hearts yearn for a more excellent way. Let's listen for a moment to St. Paul's formula for excellence:
"Though 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 that I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."
Now, let me make sure I understand this. St. Paul seems to be saying that I can be an eloquent preacher of the gospel, with my worship services broadcast by satellite around the world, but if I have a heart full of hatred and indulge in character assassination, I am a bunch of noise. I can have my Ph.D. in nuclear physics, be a Nobel prize winner with several books to my credit, but if I'm not able to relate to my family, I've accomplished nothing. I can be a world class athlete, on their way to Vancover in a couple of weeks, an athlete totally committed to being the best I can be, but if I care not for others, my gold medals are a sham. Is that what St. Paul is saying? Gee, I can think of some people who are not going to want to hear that. But here is the first thing St. Paul says to us: THE ONLY EXCELLENCE THAT COUNTS IN LIFE IS EXCELLENCE IN LOVE.
Some time back, Amy Mulrooney wrote to DEAR ABBY hoping the stranger who helped her at a busy airport in Washington state would see her letter and know how much she appreciated his generosity.
Amy flew to Pullman for an interview for admission to Washington State University's veterinary school. Before she left she made reservations for a rental car and a motel room. She had everything planned out, hoping to have a couple of hours of peace and quiet in her motel room before her important interview.
That wasn't how things turned out, however. At the airport Amy went to the rental car agency, intending to pay for it with her credit card. To her great dismay her credit card was not accepted. She had made a payment five days before and was certain it would clear by the time she arrived in Washington, but it didn't. Amy had no other way to pay for either the rental car or the motel room. "So there I was," Amy wrote, "stranded at the airport." She went immediately to a pay phone to call her roommate back in California. She was upset and crying hysterically.
It was while Amy was on the telephone that a gentleman came up next to her. She thought he wanted to use the phone when he tapped her on the shoulder. The unknown gentleman handed Amy a one-hundred dollar bill and walked away. Amy never even got the chance to find out who he was or even to thank him. He disappeared in the crowd.
"I want him to know that I was accepted in Washington State's veterinary school," Amy wrote to Dear Abby, "so not only did this anonymous benefactor make it possible for me to arrive on time for my interview, he made it possible for me to get into veterinary school." Amy said she will remember her experience for the rest of her life.
Albert Schweitzer was once asked to name the greatest person in the world. The good doctor replied, "The greatest person in the world is some unknown individual in some obscure corner of the earth who at this very hour has gone in love to be with another person in need."
That's the first thing St. Paul says to us.
The only excellence is excellence in love.
THE SECOND THING ST. PAUL SAYS IS THAT LOVE IS MORE THAN AN EMOTION. "Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude."
Is that the kind of love you have for your spouse? A woman left a shelter for battered women to return home to her husband who had mistreated her for years. "Deep down I know he loves me," she said. No, a thousand times no. He does not love you. He owns you. Love has nothing to do with it.
"Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
A certain man tells about his father who several years ago had a blood clot to go to his brain and he was operated on. The doctors had to remove the part of his brain which deals with communication skills (reading, writing, speech). He has what is technically called Aphasia, so it is very difficult for him to communicate. He has in essence had to teach himself how to write and read again. When he does write letters, it may take him days to finish. Recently, he wrote one of his daughters a letter. In that letter this old gentleman with aphasia recorded a memory that was stored in his brain since he was three years old. We hear so much about repressed memories of child abuse, but this memory was different. Here is what he wrote (remember that he is writing under that cloud of aphasia): "I can remember the many times when 'Colly' (his father) proved his love to his children. Like when I was age 3, Sandhill, Carrol County (Georgia), late at night " cold winter " no electric lights or electric water except a well " and at night the bucket had slivers of ice " no heat in the house except the fireplace " covered with ashes to keep enough to warm the babies " Reese (his name) was thirsty " 3 a.m. " a sound " 'Daddy, Daddy, I'm thirsty.' With a flash a match was struck " and as magic (no electric lights) light appeared from kerosene lamp " I could hear my daddy walking toward the kitchen " then smash some ice " and in a flash I had stood up " in a minute " an angel of mercy without any fuss " with one hand on a lamp and the other hand holding a glass of fresh cold water " to hold a glass for a boy " and the same hand, so warm, holding the dripping of water under the boy's chin " 'Thank you daddy' " No kissing, not necessary " only a warm feeling of being loved."
That is love, isn't it? Love is more than an emotion. Love is found in concrete acts of caring.
A woman visited a newspaper editor's office, hoping to sell him some poems she had written.
"What are your poems about?" the editor asked.
"They're about love!" gushed the poetess.
The editor settled back in his chair and said, "Well, read me a poem. The world could certainly use a lot more love!"
The poem she read was filled with moons and Junes and other sticky sentiments, and it was more than the editor could take.
"I'm sorry," he said, "but you just don't know what love is all about! It's not moonlight and roses. It's sitting up all night at a sick-bed, or working extra hours so the kids can have new shoes. The world doesn't need your brand of poetical love. It needs some good old-fashioned practical love." That's true.
That's why the world treasured Mother Teresa so very much. Determined that dying people deserve to be treated with dignity, this little nun left the security of the convent with only a coin in her pocket, and went into the streets of Calcutta looking for dying people. She dragged their dying bodies into a temple that had been offered to her by the city " a deserted and dirty place, which she cleaned up and put to use.
There she loved and cared for the dying people until they passed away. "Everybody at least deserves to have somebody love them while they are dying," she said.
But then an amazing thing began to happen. Even though Sister Teresa took only terminal cases, when they came there they felt the love of Christ and they got hope " and many stoped dying! When Robert Schuller visited there one of the nurses told him, "We are going to have to change the name of this place from the Home of the Dying to the Home of the Living."
Love is the only excellence that matters. Love is more than emotion.
But there is one thing more St. Paul says to us: LOVE IS ETERNAL. "Love never ends; as for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge it will pass away." Love is the only thing in this world that is eternal. Think about it. Everything else that you accomplish will one day be left behind.
· So you have your body in great condition. Super, but one day you will leave it behind.
· So you have worked your way up to the top of your corporation. Wonderful. Enjoy it while you can. As far as I know there are no corporations in heaven.
· So you have mastered the study of microbiology. Terrific. Unfortunately such knowledge belongs to the physical universe not to the spiritual.
I am not saying these things are not important. I am saying that they pale in comparison to your relationships with other people " for people are the only things in this world that are eternal.
It's like a group of soldiers who were released from prison camp at the end of World War II. Because transportation was limited and bad weather threatened to cut off the port, the remaining soldiers who were to board the last boat were told they could bring only one piece of baggage. Two soldiers had been together throughout the war and had looked out for each other. When one was selected to go and the other was forced to stay behind and wait for a later boat, the first man turned over his duffel bag, spilling out all his personal possessions onto the ground, then told his friend to step into the bag. He then strenuously lifted the bag onto his back and carried his most important item of luggage onto the ship " his friend.
That's a smart soldier. Are you that smart? Am I? Only two things really matter in this world " our relationship with God and our relationships with others. This is true excellence.
Love is more than an emotion; it is concrete acts of caring concern.
And it never ends.
It is the only thing in this world that is eternal.
