Happy St. Valentine's Day

This weekend, as I write this, is St. Valentine’s day.  Of the many Christian holidays that have gotten muddled up with secular traditions (and there are many: St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween, even Christmas) few Christian holidays bear less resemblance to their original form than St. Valentine’s day.   Even the Saint part gets left off more than not.  

With that said there isn’t even a lot of agreement on which St. Valentine the holiday was to commemorate.  There have been several Saints named Valentine who were martyred but in all likelihood it was St. Valentine of Rome who was executed for performing forbidden weddings for Roman soldiers.  Roman regular soldiers were prohibited from marriage as that was reserved for officers.  

It was the author Chaucer (and not Hallmark) who first connected the annual celebration of St. Valentine to the notion of romantic love.  This is hardly surprising since his writings did a great deal to usher in the whole notion of romance and romantic love which had flourished in Greco/Roman times but had fallen out of fashion.  Since then St. Valentine’s heart, which was his symbol, was regularly given to children on this holiday as a card or trinket...but it was to ward off epilepsy not to express romance...St. Valentine is the patron saint of epilepsy sufferers.  

Years have passed and romance in general has become the standard for the holiday called (Saint) Valentine's Day.  Now it is not uncommon to see on a card: St. Valentine’s epilepsy fighting heart, next to the Greek cupids, while expressing in Chaucer-like-poetry thoughts of romantic love.  

Perhaps it is good to have a confusing holiday for a confusing emotion.  Romantic love twists a person up and robs them of their good senses while simultaneously setting them free on wings of joy and happiness.  What other emotion can claim such complex and confusing depth.  

This is why the love that Christ wanted to offer humanity came in such clear and concise form.  Jesus wanted humanity to know of God’s unceasing, unrelenting, and limitless love.  It was a love that accepted no barrier and had no fear.  It was in this love that Christ gave his life for you and me on the cross.  Maybe romance is difficult and romantic love is confusing.  But there is no confusion in the love that is in God for you and me.  

Blessings,

Pastor Rus