Gospel Reflections for February 14 2016
Valentine’s Day
What perfect readings for this day!
Valentine’s Day is a wonderful event to celebrate love, commitment, affection, intimacy, devotion, care, fidelity, understanding, and faithfulness. Those are all wonderful virtues.
Jesus goes into the desert and is tempted by the devil to deny all of them!
First, the Devil tempts Jesus to turn stones into bread. He had not eaten for days and must have been hungry. Fasting is a way of demonstrating that we are more powerful than our desires, even for food. Using His divine power for Himself and His own needs would have sounded great. He would have become totally independent of physical needs. He will not do it. Jesus is all about love, and love is all about using our gifts for others.
Second, the Devil tempts Jesus to acquire all the kingdoms of the world. Having all that earthly power for Himself would have sounded great. He would have become all powerful for Himself. He would not do it. Jesus is all about love, and He would only use His divine power for the good of others.
Third, the Devil tempts Him to fall from a great height and show his invulnerability to pain and suffering. Being free from suffering would have sounded great. He would never feel another’s pain as well. He would not do it. Jesus, the Son of God, entered our world at Bethlehem precisely to share in our human experience of pain and suffering.
Today is Valentine’s Day, which celebrates love. The love that Jesus lives is a love that is all about God’s love for us. It blocks each of the Devil’s temptations.
Love means we are no longer completely independent, but allow ourselves to include another person intimately into our life.
Love means we no longer seek absolute power, but seek to serve the needs of others and enhance the life of our loved ones and seek to make their life happier.
Love means we no longer seek invulnerability, but allow ourselves to be open and transparent to those around us, even if it involves sacrifice and hardship.
The temptations Jesus experienced still occur today. The Devil is still active looking for a soft target. Let it not be us!
On this Valentine’s Day, let us commit ourselves to follow the example of Jesus and love others as He loved us.
God Bless!
Fr. Dave
Dear Fr Dave
Your reflections are very meaningful and I was compelled to comment. Valentine’s Day in today’s society has become very superficial. True love is about commitment and self sacrifice. O’Henry’s “Gift of the Magi” depicts true love. Like you said, to experience love we have to be transparent and allow intimacy. Thank you for reminding us of God’s true meaning of love. Happy Valentine’s Day !!❤️💗❤️💗❤️💗❤️
Father Dave, Your words are so beautifully expressed for the pure meaning of Love!!! I love these words as well!!!!
” Love is who you are!!Love is what you do!!!Love is why you’re here!!!!!! Living Jesus’ love as he did in it’s beauty, pure love and sacrifice!!! We must radiate Jesus’ love and be a sign of His love to the world!!!
A most precious Valentine’s Day to you for you live and share Jesus’ love!!!!
Loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, Franca and Dick
Thank you!
The TV version of Valentines Day is all about life-sized teddy bears for $99 and sexy pajamas. For these ads to be successful, we men have to have a peculiar attitude toward love. We would have to be hoping for some reward for our expenditure. Instead, expressing love to our sweetie has to be something meaningful to her, not just to us! Unfortunately we don’t see any ads about true love. True love doesn’t sell well because it is all about, as you say, “giving”, and not about selling.
Flowers say a lot about love because they are beautiful and reflect the respect that a man has for his sweetie. But perhaps the best way to celebrate Valentine’s Day is to be present to one another as Christ is to all of us.
Presence is always the best present!
Mentioning that Jesus was probably very hungry and could have been vulnerable when Satan came to challenge him. It reminds me that that is when we are at the hight of temptation. We need to rely on God’s strength to pull us through.
When you talked about love I remembered time when I was talking with a woman from India and how she was picked for her husband. I asked her if she loved him. She said how much she did love him. When they get married it is for life and when she said that she new she was going to work it out and make it work. The love grew. It made me think how we “fall in love” in the USA. Actually we fall in another “L” word. Then we see the faults in each other that we ignore during the courtship and then decided to either stick it through or leave the bum :-). Then at Church a well known couple in our church had renewed their wedding vows as it was their 50th anniversary. I also knew that they had gone through a lot in some of those 50 years but their I DO was so strong you could feel it was right from the pit of their stomach and very much sincere. Not just repeating words. The Lord showed me through both couples that Love is never immediatet but making it through those hard times and that is what makes love grow. I think that is the way it is with God as well. Making it through the hard times qand trusting on God to get us through it all.
I say “Amen” to your commentary as well as to Father Dave’s. Like you, I think that love is a creation that grows. It goes through an infancy, adolescence and finally maturity. It involves the hard knocks of life to mature.
Yes, the “school of hard knocks” is not one that many attend, but they should!
I am glad that you experienced the heartfelt witness of those two couples!
One of your best …keep up the good work!
Happy Valentine’s Day!