The day is upon us once again. A day full of roses, chocolate, lavish dinners, romance, and some Cupid guy who shoots people with arrows. I am talking, of course, about Valentine's Day. Every year on this day, couples will celebrate their love of one another through things like giving gifts or going out to a special dinner. One can't walk into a supermarket without seeing a section all plastered in pink boasting anything you could possibly need in the shape of a heart. It is yet another holiday which radical American consumerism has hijacked for the sake of making a profit. In addition, it has one key thing in common with many other holidays which have experienced this same fate; it is actually a Catholic holiday. Everyone knows Christmas and Easter come from a Catholic origin and Saint Patrick's day too (it has "Saint" in the name so it's not hard to figure out). However, I think there is a large number of people, maybe even Catholics since it was removed from the liturgical calendar after Vatican II, who don't know that Valentine's Day is actually "Saint Valentine's Day." Not a lot is known about Saint Valentine and, in fact, he could represent two different people. However, it is agreed that he was Roman martyr from the third century who was buried north of Rome. In fact, it was on this day, the fourteenth of February, that he was martyred. There are two main stories about him, leading people to the aforementioned belief that he may have been two people: The first holds that he was a bishop who was sent to prison and later executed for trying to convert people to Christianity. The other holds that he was arrested and sent to prison for aiding persecuted Christians and also for illegally presiding over Christian weddings. This second thread may be, in part, how his feast has come to be associated with romantic love. I do not, however, wish to go deeply into the various stories concerning Valentine since you can easily search for them online. If you wish to learn more about who he may have been, you can go to this website where I found my information. However, I wish to give a little commentary on what meaning we can draw from this day, besides romance, in our current age. As I said earlier, what we do know about Valentine is that he was a martyr, meaning he was killed as a result of his Christian faith. I think the two main stories about him have particular significance in our modern era. As noted above, the first story says he was killed for trying to convert people to the faith. One needs not look far to see that we have, again, entered into an era where working to evangelize and convert others is seen as impolite if not outright offensive. The secular world tells us that everybody has their own truth and that we have no right to impose "our truth" upon others. Even further, there are even some in the hierarchy of the Church who at least seem to criticize good and authentic evangelization, condemning it a "proselytism." The idea of moral and theological relativism continues to spread to the point that it seems we live in an age where each person lives his or her own reality. Saint Valentine reminds us that we need to hold on to and fight for the truth, no matter the cost. In the United States, we have relative comfort in professing and sharing the Christian faith. Sure, sharing our faith may earn us a weird reaction or even cost us friends, but it's unlikely that we will die because of it. However, we can look east to the underground church in China being persecuted by the secular communist regime or the Christians being slaughtered by radical Islam for a reminder that, for many, Saint Valentine's reality is their reality. Then we have the story which says that Valentine was imprisoned and killed, at least in part, for performing illegal Christian marriages. For many Americans, this story thread may hit a little closer to home. Sister Lucia, one of the witnesses of Mary's apparitions at Fatima stated that the final battle against Satan would be for marriage and family. We see this battle being waged before our very own eyes where unnatural unions are now viewed as the norm to the point that a former presidential hopeful threatened to remove tax exempt status from churches who do not accept gay "marriage." It is no longer enough for the secularists that their desired lifestyles have been enshrined into national law. They now want everyone who even disagrees with their point of view punished because to disagree with them is hateful. Instead, the argue, we need to love each other. The sane Christian agrees that we are called to love one another. Christ himself told us to do so. However, there is a major difference, I would argue, which lies in what society's ever-changing definition of love and what Christianity has always defined as love. The secularists, and sadly many "Christians," seem to equate love with things like niceness and acceptance. To them, the loving reaction to someone living in sin is accepting them, giving them a pat on the back, and letting them stay where they are. To proclaim the truth to someone and call them out of their sin, that is hate. However, Christianity has taught that the holiest and truest form of love is the love which involves sacrifice. This love is, of course, modeled most perfectly in the life of Jesus Christ himself. Jesus loved sinners, of course, but he loved them too much and knew the value of their souls to leave them there. It was love, then, that compelled him to say, "Go, and sin no more." It was love for his Father which compelled him to enter into the temple, the house of worship, and cast out the money changers and vendors with a whip and turn over their tables because they had defaced the house of the Lord. It was love which compelled Jesus to ascend the cross and give himself, in innocence, for the salvation of all the guilty who would accept him. A life modeled on Christ is the true love. This love, then, leads one to forsake any care for how they are viewed by the world so they may be a voice of truth among confusion and error. This love leads a husband to give himself completely for his wife and children. Most perfectly, this love leads the martyrs to their glorious deaths where they die in and for Christ, just as he died for them. Therefore, let us cast aside the falsity which the world wants us to believe is love. Instead, let us look to the example of Saint Valentine as a reminder to truly love. To be better husbands, wives, parents, children, relatives, friends, and, most importantly, disciples. Let us strive to die to ourselves every day for the love of God and others by rejecting sin, especially pride and impurity, and our own desires in our lives. Instead, let us accept the desire of Christ, that we take up our cross and follow him. In addition, let us not be too afraid of being labeled as hateful for calling others to do the same. Yes, the way of true love is difficult, but it is this love which leads to true blessedness, for "Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8). Sancte Valentine, ora pro nobis. Artwork: Saint Valentine Baptizing Saint Lucilla by Jacopo Bassano
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About MeAn Iowa-raised convert to Catholicism seeking to live my life entirely for Jesus and His Church with all the saints. Archives
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