No matter where you are vocationally this Saint Valentine's Day, Jesus wants to spend it with you. So much so that this year, Ash Wednesday falls on the feast of Saint Valentine's Day. The day we begin the season of repentance, remembering and turning back to the Lord, and entering into the desert, is the Saint’s feast-day-turned-secular-holiday that the world uses to remind us of love. Today, as the first day of Lent, is the day to enter into His love. His heart is for you. Let Jesus “allure [you] and bring [you] into the wilderness” this Saint Valentine's Day “and speak tenderly to [you]” (see Hosea 2:14).
The secular Valentine's Day, with its pink and red hearts, flowers and chocolates, and romantic notions, reminds us of the beauty of love. Those Valentines we receive, whether they are from classmates in second grade, a friend, or a spouse, are affirmations of being loved. Our hearts, made in the image and likeness of God, crave that affirmation of love. Yet love cannot be separated from sacrifice, as modeled for us by Christ but also by Saint Valentine who was martyred for His love of Jesus. As the Bridegroom of us, the Church, Jesus' love for us is not only sacrificial but wildly beautiful and, I daresay, romantic, in His pursuit of our hearts.
I stumbled across this poem recently from the epigraph of the book The Friendship of Christ by Robert Hugh Benson. (He footnotes it as “from an old manuscript.”) I think it captures the beauty of the Lord’s pursuit of our hearts and gives us much to ponder this Valentine's Day.
“This Is My Friend”
Let me tell you how I made His acquaintance.
I had heard much of Him, but took no heed.
He sent daily gifts and presents, but I never thanked Him.
He often seemed to want my friendship, but I remained cold.
I was homeless, and wretched, and starving and in peril every hour; and He offered me shelter and comfort and food and safety; but I was ungrateful still.
At last, He crossed my path and with tears in His eyes, He besought me saying, Come and abide with me.
Let me tell you how he treats me now.
He supplies all my wants.
He gives me more than I dare ask.
He anticipates my every need.
He begs me to ask for more.
He never reminds me of my past ingratitude.
He never rebukes me for my past follies.
Let me tell you further what I think of Him.
He is as good as He is great.
His love is as ardent as it is true.
He is as lavish of His promises as He is faithful in keeping them.
He is as jealous of my love as He is deserving of it.
I am in all things His debtor, but He bids me call Him Friend.
This Valentine's Day, this Lent, “He begs me to ask for more.”
What more is the Lord begging you to ask for? For what have you been hesitant to ask the Lord? It's funny how we can hold ourselves back from asking the Lord for very good things out of fear, false humility, or pride. Yet He wants us to ask. Perhaps He is asking you this Lent to be bold in your prayer. Ask big, because “He is as lavish of His promises as He is faithful in keeping them.” I think, in a way, this kind of prayer is an affirmation of love. It’s a way you can give the Lord a secret Valentine.
Sr. Mary Claire of the Holy Family is a member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) and currently serves in Corpus Christi, TX. She loves Jesus and Mary, and her students would say every Saint is her favorite. She graduated with a degree in elementary education and is currently working on a Masters in Theology from her Alma Mater, Franciscan University. A Tennessee girl who could live off Dr. Pepper and popcorn, she loves road trips, especially this one we are on to Heaven.
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