Church tradition holds that
on the 14th of February…
sometime in the late Third Century…
the Bishop of modern-day Terni, in Italy, was martyred for the faith.
The Bishop’s name was Valentine.
The date of his death, and of his passing into eternal life…
coincided with the date that Europeans in the Middle Ages
believed began of the mating season of birds.
I presume you’ve all heard about “the birds and the bees?!”
(hopefully laughter...)
So, the day became a special day dedicated to lovers.
And popular romantic customs developed…
like people sending love-letters to each other.
Hence the traditions of Valentine’s Day.
[PAUSE]
We have just celebrated Valentine’s Day this past week…
Surely many of you sent cards, and flowers, and chocolates to the ones you love…
small tokens of how much you care for them,
and how your life would not be complete without them.
The love we give and receive in our lives…
the love shared among family in each of your homes…
the embrace of a husband and wife…
or of a mother and her infant child
the friendship of schoolmates and colleagues…
the love a pastor and his flock…
all the ways in which we experience the tender, peaceful presence
of another’s love…
is a sign of the love of God at work in our souls.
Wherever true love is found…
it is a sign of the peaceful and holy presence of God.
To truly love…
completely for the sake of another…
is to be like God!
Today the Church continues the theme of love for us in the Sacred Scriptures
The Psalmist declares to us:
“The Lord is kind and merciful.”
God’s love does not always make sense to us.
We sometimes take issue with God’s love…
and we certainly find it difficult to love as He does.
God’s unconditional love extends to people whose lives do not merit such kindness…
to prisoners and death row inmates…
to terrorists.
God loves the people who we think are not deserving of love…
those who hate us and mistreat us…
those who strike us on the cheek and take what belongs to us.
God also loves those whom society casts aside…
the elderly, the poor, and the unborn.
This kind of love is not comfortable for us.
What is more disconcerting is that God asks us to love this way, too.
As children of God…
created in the image of Him who, as St. John tells us, is Love itself…
we are made to be people who love as passionately as He does.
Many times this means loving those we would rather hate…
loving in a way that is uncomfortable or unpopular.
[PAUSE]
In today’s First Reading,
David and Abishai go among the enemy troops at night,
and find Saul asleep…and vulnerable.
Abishai asks David to allow him to kill Saul in his sleep,
but David forbids it, saying:
“Who can lay hands on the Lord’s anointed and remain unpunished?”
How often do we wish we could discover our enemies vulnerable…
or catch them in a trap…
so that we can nail them to the ground
with the pointed spear of a well-crafted plot.
Of course, we must remember that as David revered Saul and would not harm him…
so we ought to respect and show honor to every human person.
For all of us bear the image of the God who created us…
and of His Son who redeemed us.
As human persons we all have a dignity that is to be respected.
Who can lay hands on the children of God and go unpunished?
In the Gospel, Jesus tells us:
“love your enemies…
do good to those who hate you…
pray for those who mistreat you.”
“For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?”
In other words, it is not good enough to love when it is easy!
For the Christian, true love means taking the next step…
to love when we would rather turn away…
after the pattern of our Heavenly Father,
who “is kind” even “to the ungrateful and the wicked.”
Violence is not to have a place in our lives.
“Getting even” with our enemies is not the solution.
In love beyond all telling…
Christ triumphed over sin
and trampled death by his own death on the Cross.
So it is in our lives: the answer to evil is not evil.
The only victor over evil is love!
[PAUSE]
Every day we see on the news the devastating effects
which come when violence has taken over a whole region of the world.
This week’s news included a story more disturbing.
In a Target store…
a woman shopping accidentally bumped into 10-year-old girl,
accompanied by three other girls.
Allegedly because she did not apologize,
the girls tore off the woman’s clothes…
and beat her senseless.
This violence is not a continent away…
and it was not perpetrated by men with guns and tanks.
It happened on our fruited plains…
and was done by a 10-year-old girl!
[PAUSE]
Our society is in need of a deep conversion.
The world needs us to shower it with prayers and with living examples of love.
By loving in a radical way…
loving and praying for our enemies…
doing good to those who hate…
loving those who seem to be unlovable…
we can make real for those around us the presence of God.
Transforming the world begins here. It begins now.
It begins with us, who have come to know Christ in the Eucharist.
My the love we celebrate...the love we share with one another...
be for the world a sign of God's holy love!
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