It is Nice to Know: I Love You
The world-renowned play “The Fiddler on the Roof”
is back in San Francisco theatre.
It is a spectacular play if you have never seen it
and well worth your time if you can see it.
Many years ago, they made a movie out of it.
There are several powerful themes in that play
that speak to the human condition
so poignantly, so strongly.
For those of you who do not know
the movie or the play script,
the storyline is about a Russian Jewish peasant family
and their life in the some village
and their eventual being cast out of their land.
They have five daughters and
each one is getting married off,
and for different reasons,
they all bring up this word called “love.”
And Tevye, the father, wonders aloud,
“When we got married, there was no love.”
And so Tevye asked his wife of 25 years
“Do you love me?”
Here is the clip from the movie
as it is a really powerful little section.
Video Clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_y9F5St4j0
Tevye: Do you love me?
Golde: Do I what?
Tevye: Do you love me?
Golde: Do I love you?
With our daughters getting married
And this trouble in the town
You're upset, you're worn out
Go inside, go lie down!
Maybe it's indigestion
Tevye: "Golde I'm asking you a question..."
Do you love me?
Golde: You're a fool
Tevye: "I know..."
But do you love me?
Golde: Do I love you?
For twenty-five years I've washed your clothes
Cooked your meals, cleaned your house
Given you children, milked the cow
After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?
Tevye: Golde, The first time I met you
Was on our wedding day
I was scared
Golde: I was shy
Tevye: I was nervous
Golde: So was I
Tevye: But my father and my mother
Said we'd learn to love each other
And now I'm asking, Golde
Do you love me?
Golde: I'm your wife
Tevye: "I know..."
But do you love me?
Golde: Do I love him?
For twenty-five years I've lived with him
Fought him, starved with him
Twenty-five years my bed is his
If that's not love, what is?
Tevye: Then you love me?
Golde: I suppose I do
Tevye: And I suppose I love you too
Both: It doesn’t change a thing
But even so
After twenty-five years
It's nice to know
After 25 years, it is nice to know.
It is something that we often take for granted
both in our own lives and
in our relationship with our God.
When was the last time we told our God we love him?
He has been here with us all our lives;
he has taken care of us through
the good times and the bad.
We ask him for lots of things, here and there;
I want this; I want that.
But when was the last time we said to our God,
“I love you. I love you.”
I think that is the challenge of our scripture today
—is to simply say to our God,
“I love you because you first loved me.”
That is what we try to demonstrate to these children
who are coming to be part of this love feast
that we call the Eucharist.
We come and learn to say to our God,
“I love you” because he has first loved us.
Oh, it sounds easy but it isn’t so easy at times
because lots of stuff happens to us
in our lives that we get—well, our eyesight gets bad;
it gets clouded over and we get distracted with life
and we forget to remind ourselves
and to say to God that we love him.
In today’s second reading from Paul to the Corinthians
focused on love in the real sense.
In the real sense, love is patient.
Love is kind.
Love never fails.
How is it that love is patient?
Why is it that love is patient?
Because God is love.
Therefore, if we are to participate in God,
we are called to love one another.
So maybe tonight, today from our Eucharist,
we take two singular challenges.
One is to say to our God, “I love you.”
The other is to say to our spouse, child or parent,
or say to our close friend who we love simply,
“I love you.”
Because in the end, it is nice to know.
