While driving to work, I had a favorite CD playing in my car – a collection of Andrew Lloyd Webber songs. I was preoccupied with the traffic, so the music mainly provided a soothing background. At one point, the lyrics of a particular song caught my attention. I felt moved by the sentiment of the words:
Love,
Love Changes Everything:
Hands and Faces,
Earth and Sky.
Love,
Love changes everything:
How you live and
How you die……Love will never let you be the same
– Lyrics by Don Black & Charles Hart
I realize that these lyrics were meant to refer to romantic love, but I couldn’t help reflect that in relation to the gift of charity, love really does change everything! When we are possessed with pure Christlike love, the way we feel about ourselves, the way we feel about others, and even the way we experience reality is never the same. Christlike love is not the giddy wave of affection we often associate with romantic love. It is something much more subtle, something deeper. It is a love that does not alter with our moods or with external circumstances.
If we continue earnestly, with faith and hope in Christ to seek the gift of charity, it will be granted to us. We can become filled with a love of God and of all people. The apostle Paul gave a beautiful promise:
“That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
– Ephesians 3:17-19
Video: “Love Changes Everything” performed by Michael Ball
Latter-day Soprano 