This month both Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day fall on the same day! The link between the two can be summed up in terms of the nature of real love! Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday, focuses on learning to love God more, as we give Him space in our lives. This is what Jesus found when He was led into the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan. (Luke 4:1-13).
Jesus was tempted to turn stones into bread. Yet loving God and His word comes before satisfying physical desires.
Satan tempted Jesus to worship him. However, worshipping God is an expression of loving God and serving Him.
Finally, He was tempted to put God to the test, by jumping off the Temple. Real love for God does not put Him to the test, but wants to obey Him.
Lent also teaches us how to live out the love of God in practical ways, as we follow Jesus in the in the way of the Cross. We see this clearly demonstrated in the life and death of Saint Valentine.
Valentine was a Christian who demonstrated the importance of sharing God’s love with others. We know little about him, except that he was a priest who lived in the 3rd Century AD and that he was martyred on 14thFebruary. Emperor Claudius felt that soldiers in the Roman Army were distracted from their duty by their wives, and so had attempted to outlaw marriage. It is believed that Valentine married couples in secret, which is why today we celebrate our love for one another on his day.
In trying to understand the meaning of her revelations from God, Julian of Norwich found:
‘What, do you wish to know your Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well, love was His meaning.’