Many sources say there really was a Saint Valentine.
Just a year after Christopher Columbus found North America while searching for India (maybe that is when the rumor started that you can't get men to stop and ask for directions), an identity we think of St. V appeared in the Nuremburg Chronicle.
It seems there was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus.
Love may have been one of his motives and a cause he deemed to worthy to die for as it was part of what and Who he believed. Valentine was arrested and imprisoned for marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime.
Yet, up to a point the Roman leader liked the prisoner – until Valentine tried to convert the Emperor – whereupon this priest was condemned to death.
It is a bit difficult to pull apart the legend from reality, but I suspect the story is true. It's a pale reflection of the a much larger valentine that we celebrate a little later in the spring. Easter marks the triumph over death, sin, and the devil by Jesus - who died to take away the sins of the world - not so we might have moments or even a lifetime of happiness, but eternal life. (John 3:16)
Love may have been one of his motives and a cause he deemed to worthy to die for as it was part of what and Who he believed. Valentine was arrested and imprisoned for marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime.
Yet, up to a point the Roman leader liked the prisoner – until Valentine tried to convert the Emperor – whereupon this priest was condemned to death.
It is a bit difficult to pull apart the legend from reality, but I suspect the story is true. It's a pale reflection of the a much larger valentine that we celebrate a little later in the spring. Easter marks the triumph over death, sin, and the devil by Jesus - who died to take away the sins of the world - not so we might have moments or even a lifetime of happiness, but eternal life. (John 3:16)
A more recent reflection on love was offered by Robert A. Heinlein in Stranger in a Strange Land:
“Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.”
As we celebrate this holiday of love, it's an excellent time to consider not the selfish and fleeting moments of love of ourselves and our future - but those whom we love deeply.
If another person's happiness is essential to our own, we can begin to understand the ultimate meaning of today's commercialized love and distill into its essence.
Happy Valentine's Day!
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As we celebrate this holiday of love, it's an excellent time to consider not the selfish and fleeting moments of love of ourselves and our future - but those whom we love deeply.
If another person's happiness is essential to our own, we can begin to understand the ultimate meaning of today's commercialized love and distill into its essence.
Happy Valentine's Day!
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