February turns our thoughts to spring and our hearts to love...

Valentines Day on the 14th of the month is the focus for much of this activity. It is a time when lovers remember each other with chocolate and words of endearment. The beginning of this holiday is not the feast of St. Valentine but the Roman feast of Lupercalia on the 15th. Willing young Roman women placed their names in a box to be drawn by unmarried Roman men to provide companionship for the coming year. Since this often included a lot more than holding hands, the early Christian Church developed St. Valentines Day as an alternative.

The stories of St. Valentine vary and one good reason for this is that there is more than one early martyr named Valentine. The story most often told is that Valentine was a Christian priest who defied Claudius order that there would be no more marriages. The Emperor thought that if men were single they would be better soldiers. Love however would not be denied and Valentine secretly wed many young lovers. He was condemned for his faith and his actions against the empire. In prison many of the young people Valentine befriended sent him little notes and gifts of food, which were allowed because the jailers daughter was one of the lovers he had helped. From this love story of a priest and the people he served comes our customs on St. Valentines Day.

Love is what Valentine's Day is all about. In our culture we focus on the idealization of young love. It is a day of romance. As Christians we hold romantic and marital love in high esteem. Obviously St. Valentine cared a great deal about love as well. He risked his life so people could share their love and faith before God.

Love is the single most important factor in any of our lives. Research has shown that human beings sicken and even die when we are not loved and cared for. As important as love is, there is still a great deal of confusion surrounding it. Is love just a feeling? Can you learn to love someone or is it a matter of chemistry? Jesus new commandment to his disciples was to love one another.

His understanding of love then was that we could choose to love. If love is a choice then it cannot be the overwhelming force that we in our culture understand it to be. The romantic love that drives our culture is largely sexual attraction. Anyone who has been married for a while knows that human beings continue to be sexually attracted to other people even after they are married. True love is what enables us to make the choice to be faithful not the attraction itself. That is a matter of hormones. When we begin to understand love as an act of will, loving our enemies becomes understandable. This is a major stepping stone in the path to Christian maturity.

There is more to love and Christianity than love between two people. St. Valentine exemplified this kind of self-giving love by his willingness to disobey Emperor Claudius' decree against marriage. By continuing to marry young couples in the face of increased persecution, Valentine was exhibiting the same kind of love that Jesus showed for us through the cross. Jesus had taught this kind of love to his disciples as well. He told them, "No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends." (John 15:13 NRSV)

As the Apostle John said "We love because God first loved us." Our faith is a pathway to true love. Love is the central motivation in the heart of God. As Christians it is our main motivation as well. Just as Jesus was moved to compassion by the difficulties of the people around him, the more we allow the Spirit of God to rule in our hearts the more we will be moved as well. Jesus understood his calling as love as well. Telling someone the Good News is an act of love. It gives them the opportunity to find their lives in the very source of love itself, the heart of God.

So with thanks to St. Valentine for his life and love, Happy Valentines Day!

Pastor Jim Bliss
Pastor's Notes Archive