Charity is the Greatest of all ... for all things must fail. but charity endureth forever. And whoso is found possessed of it at the last day [will be] filled with [His] love. Wherefore, pray unto the Father with all energy of heart, for Charity never faileth.
And whoso is found possessed of it shall have hope.
Charity is the pure love of Christ.
If you let it, it will give you the endurance of faith to push through to the end.
"Charity never faileth."
~Moroni 7 / Elder Hakala's personal interpretation
Dear Family and Friends,
I have often wondered how it was that Ammon and Aaron and Omner and Himni, and Zeezoram, and Ether and Mormon and Moroni and so many thousands of others were able to accomplish such great and incredible tasks that they were given. How did they find the strength they needed to endure such absolutely horrible and destructive circumstances? WHow was it that they were aeven able to stagger another for another footstep? How was it that they found such strength in the midst of their afflictions? When all around them hundreds of thousands were being slain by the sword? How was it that they were able to stand fast in worlds fraught with so much iniquity? And pain? When their very brothers sought to kill them? How was it that they continued on?
I have thought hard about this. And when I received my answer, I couldn't believe that it was so simple. Love. The answer is love. Perfect love. For perfect love, as we know in the scriptures "Casteth out all fear." And the answer to all things is the perfect love of Christ.
I have an example.
Hard times exist. Pain is real. People are confused. And sadness and depression and the terrors of a fallen world exist everywhere. How easy it can be to forget where we stand if we look for just a moment away from the Savior, and into the billowing waves.
Hardly anyone understands what I am talking about better than Mormon, the second to last prophet in the Book of Mormon. By the time he was eleven, he witness brutalities and murders of every kind. In fact he says,
"upon these plates I [do] forbear to make a full account of [the]wickedness and abominations, for behold, a continual scene of wickedness and abominations has been before mine eyes ever since I have been sufficient to behold the ways of man.
Now lets go to the next verse:
19 And wo is me because of their wickedness; for my heart has been filled with sorrow because of their wickedness, all my days; nevertheless, (and now here is the cool part) I know that I shall be lifted up at the last day.
Thats Mormon 2:18.
Can you even imagine being him? Picture all of your family, your friends. All those who you know and hold dear. And picture them all interested in nothing but the pursuit of sin, and the downfall and murdering of their brethren. That's a pretty bleak picture, right? Nevertheless, that's exactly the reality in which Mormon was cursed to live.
There's a saying Great challenges Make Greater Men. I know that that's truth, whether we can see it immediately or not.
Elder Jeffrey R Holland talked about the burden of sin as the heaviest burdens man has ever or will ever have to bear. He talks about how miserable it is. He compares it to being drowned in the depths of the sea. But then he talks about healing, through the Savior, and about true peace. That it's only by and through him that we can find rest to our souls, and indeed, find joy in every circumstance.
But even deeper than joy is submittance. The will to wait it out to the end. To go the full nine rounds. To trust in Him, no matter how bleak the circumstance. And this is the one point that I wish to share with you today and that I want you to remember if you remember nothing else:
And it's simply this. That it takes Courage to Love. To trust. To believe. And charity, or the love of Christ is at the center of it all. And as time goes on, I am coming to realize that it is the driving force for all that we do. Charity is the perfect love of Christ. And it's also the answer to my question. The reason Nephi was so great? The reason Moses was able to part the Red Sea? The reason Christ fell down on His face in the garden of Gethsemane, groaning in pain and bleeding from every pore. The answer to it all is love.
It's by love that miracles can occur. It's by love that Abraham took Isaac to the Alter. It's love for his Savior and Redeemer that Kept Mormon going despite the hellish situation in which He lived. It was by love that Nephi pressed on despite the fact that his brothers wanted to kill him, and tried multiple times to do so. And it was by love that Moses was able to lead the doubting Israelites for forty years in the bleak wilderness. And it's by love that we, too, can be willing to endure all things we are asked to do in this life, to suffer all things, like Christ did, because that is how we become Christ-like; through our love for Him. They know what we know. That none of it is possible but through Him, and that's because He loves us.
Christ was the perfect example of love. In the scriptures it talks about how healing others, as necessary as it was didn't come without a price. It says that every time Christ healed someone, the virtue went out of Him. There were times when he healed entire multitudes, without any thought of Himself. Why would He do it? At times He must have been at the point of exhaustion. Why would He continue on to heal many hundreds, many of whom did not even understand the full significance of what was occurring? Why would He do it if He had such a cost? People came from miles around to feel His healing touch, and His fame went throughout all Israel, and all Syria because of it. But why, why would He do it, when He could have let it be and focused on something, that at least in the eyes of the Pharases, of more worth?
He did it for the same reason He performed the atonement. For the same reason that all of the prophets and children of men have ever come to know God. He did it because He knew and understood the principle of love.
George Q Canon said the following about love:
“No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, [God] will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character [to do so]. He is an unchangeable being; the same yesterday, the same today, and He will be the same throughout the eternal ages to come. We have found that God. We have made Him our friend, by obeying His Gospel; and He will stand by us. We may pass through the fiery furnace; we may pass through deep waters; but we shall not be consumed nor overwhelmed. We shall emerge from all these trials and difficulties the better and purer for them, if we only trust in our God and keep His commandments” *
I would like to suggest we can only truly understand suffering. We can only get through suffering. With love.
I want you to think about it. It is key to our existance. And it is the answer to every question. Indeed, it was the only way that Christ was able to perform the atonement. Because of love. Because of compassion, for the Father, and for us.
And that's why charity never faileth.
He is the reason. And He is love.
This life isn't just a test that we love Him. It's a test of how much.
And that's how we find strength in weakness. And press on through the black tunnel to the light. And finish out the marathon we never expected to run. Let us all learn, each of us, to be Like Father, and like the Son. Through the principle that covers all, the only way to escape the pain. Through courage in love.
These are my thoughts for you today.
And I say them in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
* ~ Come unto Me, Jeffrey R Holland Talk.
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