The source of Love

February has many themes, starting with St Brigid and ending with the possibility of a leap year. In the middle of it all is the feast of St Valentine. There were many Valentines in the early church. The first Valentine, who may be the original St Valentine, died around AD 270 for reputedly celebrating the marriage of the early Christians, a practice forbidden by law.

When love is celebrated we sometimes wonder what is being celebrated. Is it a passing, fleeting moment of emotional ecstasy? Or is it the pain of loss? Or are we marking something that is eternal, joyful and beyond words?

A starting point might be to name the source of love –we may think that we are the source of our love. Or we can ask does love come from somewhere else? If love comes from somewhere other than the self, then it doesn’t depend on us. The love from elsewhere can be my strength and sustenance in the act of loving and being loved. It can also tell us how to repair that love. Our Christian faith gives us the story of Jesus of Nazareth as he teaches us how to weave forgiveness, sacrifice, support, care, memory and healing into our story of love.

‘Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God’ (1 John 4:7). Believing this, we know that loving doesn’t depend on us, but on the source of it all.

Excerpted from The Sacred Heart Messenger, Alan Hilliard, February 2021