1 Corinthians 13/Ep 5: Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in the truth

This is part of an extended series "1 Corinthians 13 - Discovering the Father's Love" as we journey towards Valentine's Day. Stay tuned for reflections on the beautiful verse as we meditate on the nature of love.

As Valentine’s Day rolls around, I can’t help but feel a bit of #FOMO when I scroll through social media. There are pretty flowers, dinner date suggestions, beautiful dresses and then there are the posts of my friends celebrating their anniversaries. The more I scroll, the further down the rabbit hole I go. I recently realised that my phone started to be more laggy and took it as a divine sign that I was spending an unhealthy amount of time on my phone. While not evil in itself, I reflected deeper on what social media was to me. It was something that was enslaving me, something that I regarded as an idol. It was causing me to compare myself to others and to become impatient with the Father. Social media in and of itself was not evil, but it precipitated behaviours in me that were taking me further away from Him. I was needlessly anxious and worried, when He has my life in His hands all this while. Indeed, we find ourselves chained to different “vices” in our lives. These result in unhealthy addictions and attachments, much like how our ancestors worshipped pagan gods. We have made an idol of these achievements, these “feel-good” affirmations, these relationships.

Sometimes we feel compelled by societal pressures to do things we are not comfortable with and the invitation may seem innocuous. Perhaps someone has just invited you to a drinking session and you know you get drunk easily. Or your partner is trying to convince you that premarital sex is really no big deal and to loosen up. A lot of these temptations to sin occur at the boundary, the precipice. We think we can recognise sin and evil with a radar and that we will know how to stand firm in our principles. But the evil one is seductive in convincing us that there is nothing wrong with just letting our guard down, like really what could go wrong? It is this expendable logic that causes us to slip deeper and deeper into sin. We find ourselves submitting ourselves to our human desires, and no it doesn’t mean gazing at six-packs on Instagram, it can mean something as “harmless” as being enslaved to the false consolations and affirmation of social media. As we indulge ourselves in these sins, we find ourselves sinking deeper and find it hard to get out of the quicksand. Doing the right thing, saying no to another drink, maintaining chastity in romantic relationships and keeping our language clean may prove difficult, for it always seems easier to just follow the crowd, for it doesn’t seem a “big deal”. The thing is though, by succumbing to our desires, we are unable to live in the true freedom of Christ, we are chained as much as we may think we are “free”. We seem to be exercising our human autonomy, but are we truly free? No, we have just been enslaved to a non-human master.

Yet, His love resembles nothing of this enslavement of the soul. He desires to set our soul free, for “love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth”. He breaks the chains that bind us, the knots in our hearts. A friend of mine recommended that I pray “Novena to our Lady, Undoer of Knots” and it brought me much peace.

Virgin Mary, Mother of fair love, Mother who never refuses to come to the aid of a child in need, Mother whose hands never cease to serve your beloved children because they are moved by the divine love and immense mercy that exist in your heart, cast your compassionate eyes upon me and see the snarl of knots that exists in my life.

You know very well how desperate I am, my pain, and how I am bound by these knots. Mary, Mother to whom God entrusted the undoing of the knots in the lives of his children, I entrust into your hands the ribbon of my life.

No one, not even the evil one himself, can take it away from your precious care. In your hands there is no knot that cannot be undone.

Powerful Mother, by your grace and intercessory power with Your Son and My Liberator, Jesus, take into your hands today this knot.

For His love is free and boundless, His love does not desire to entrap us but to allow us to live a full and free life. Let Him undo the knots in your heart and to relinquish the chains that bind you. The process is painful, but the lightness of heart that follows is one the world cannot give! Let us put on the armour of God in the face of sin and temptation and guard our hearts, for truly His love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth.