My friends, we have come to the end of our summer series – the dénouement, if you will, of this trilogy of sermons on the theological virtues. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. Three weeks ago, we said something about the Christian faith, and this past week, something about the Christian hope: today, we come to the greatest of these, which is charity.

I have received some flak from knowing and attentive parishioners over my choice of the traditional language for St Paul’s theological triad, for the use of the word “charity,” as the King James Version saith. In more contemporary translations, the word is given as “love.” There is a certain method to the madness. I said last week that hope is a slippery word, cheapened by easy use. How much more cheapened, how much more slippery, is the word love?