A Valentine’s Day interpretation
In the midst of all the flowers, chocolates, stuffed animals and commercialism, I’ve done some serious thinking.
I’ve hated Valentine’s Day for as long as I can remember - half out of bitterness of being alone, and half out of the superficiality of it all. Even last year, the first Valentine’s Day where I was in a relationship, I found myself resenting the “holiday” - in part, I realize now, because I didn’t fully acknowledge the meaning behind it.
Whether you want to believe it or not, Valentine’s Day is a religious holiday. No, I’m not trying to throw religion in your face. It’s the feast say of St. Valentine, a Roman priest who was martyred for his faith.
And that’s why I think Valentine’s Day is about love.
Yes, it could be in part due to the fact that Saint Valentine was martyred for performing the sacrament of marriage for Christian couples and aiding other Christians. But ultimately, I think that the real reason we celebrate love on Valentine’s Day is because Saint Valentine was just one example of the greatest form of love - laying down one’s life in sacrifice for someone you love.
No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends
John 15:13
Saint Valentine exemplifies the same sacrifice of love that Jesus gave us on the cross. Where Jesus lay down His innocent life out of pure, selfless love for us, Saint Valentine, like all the other martyrs, lay down his innocent life out of pure, selfless love for others and for God.
It is this same love that should be the center of every single one of our own relationships, whether with a boyfriend or a girlfriend or with a friend or relative.
Love only consumes us in the measure of our own self-surrender.
Saint Therese of Liseux
If you are Christian you already know that Christ, God Himself is Love Personified, and that He gave us the example of what the true love we all deserve is. As Saint Therese said, you can only love fully when you completely surrender yourself to the other person; you can only love God if you fully surrender yourself to Him. You can only love someone else if you are completely willing to put aside all your selfish wants and desires for their personal betterment, if you are willing to be crucified for them. You need to learn how to love as Jesus loves.
This seems to be a pretty hefty task, but it is not impossible to accomplish. If it were impossible to accomplish, there would be no saints, no martyrs, no examples for us to live by other than Jesus Himself.
God gave us the saints to show us that ordinary people can accomplish extraordinary acts of love, through Him and with His help.
No matter how commercialized Valentine’s Day gets, we can never ignore the fact that it is rooted in the supreme sacrifice of Jesus’ death on the cross; history speaks for itself.
So if you were like me and despised Valentine’s Day, try thinking about it in this light. It might just make you fall in love in a new way that you didn’t expect.
Grace be with you always,
Jordan
(Source for information on Saint Valentine: [x] )
