https://odb.org/MY/2023/02/14/rejoicing-love
Today is the day we celebrate love, the romantic love between lovers. The love that two persons in love build their lives upon. The love that lovers base and plan their future. With this love, the world is their oyster. They can conquer the world and achieve great things together as a couple where they dream dreams of shared destinies.
To Christians, Valentine’s Day is worldly and may even be of the devil, but true love should nevertheless be applauded and celebrated even if we may be wary of its pagan origins or the commercial capitalism of the celebrated day. As much as the name of the day is based on a 3rd century Christian martyr, St. Valentine, the Catholic saint’s life and work were never about romantic love. Furthermore, the celebrated day of 14th February was based on a 15th February pagan festival named Lupercalia, a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture.
There is merit in celebrating romantic love except that true love transcends youth, beauty, means, achievement, success, and health. Romantic love, if it is love that is true, should be consummated only in marriage, and the Christian marriage vow typically embodies the promise to hold the other for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness, in health, to live, to cherish, till death do us part or till Christ returns. It is a vow to take no other flesh except our beloved, and it is until the day we or our better half perishes.
It’s a lifelong commitment, and we stick with one another through thick and thin, no matter the hardship or illness that may befall us, whether we have a job or not or whether our business is a roaring success or a dismal failure, from black to gray hair. We don’t run at the first sign of trouble. Instead, we protect and shield when our love is threatened. We love even if she doesn’t love us anymore because Christ will still love us even if we don’t love Him, and He first loved us when we didn’t even know Him yet.
Love is not just a feeling but a verb. That means we consciously choose to love despite our loved one’s weaknesses and idiosyncrasies, despite our emotions. We love because of who she is, not because of what she can give us. Love is selfless and not selfish. As Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13, love is, inter alia, long-suffering and kind, patient, does not envy, does not seek evil, does not seek its own, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things!
Happy and blessed Valentine’s Day, everyone! Let’s celebrate true love as God is a God of love and is love! Let’s love our loved ones with true, genuine, everlasting, and enduring love of God!
Ronnie's Thoughts 