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Red, Black, or White?

Valentine’s Day. The holiday can invoke various responses, from joy to sadness, or loneliness to ire. Despite our dating status, though, it should make us happy. Why? Valentine’s Day shouldn’t just be about roses, chocolates, and significant others–it’s a time to remember our love for everyone, including family and friends. It’s what Jesus would want us to do–show love for everyone. It’s a commercial holiday, but we don’t need to let consumerism and romance get us in the dumps on Valentine’s. A lot of people, including me at times, can get depressed when it comes to their love lives. It’s refreshing to adopt what I’d call the “Michael Bublé optimism” you find in his song, “Haven’t Met You Yet”: “I know someday it will all work out, You’ll make me work to work it out, and I promise you kid, to give so much more than I get, I just haven’t met you yet.” Rather than being depressed, we can hope that “the one” is out there for us, we just haven’t met him or her yet. In the meantime, we can work on bettering ourselves for “the one” and showing our love to all of our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. If we search for love in the wrong places or stay too focused on romantic love, it could hurt us. Take St. Augustine‘s Confessions:

“I pursued whoever-whatever might be loveable, in love with love. Safety I hated–and any course without danger. For within me was a famine.” “I carried inside me a cut and bleeding soul, and how to get rid of it I just didn’t know. I sought every pleasure–the countryside, sports, fooling around, the peace of a garden, friends and good company, sex, reading. My soul floundered in the void–and came back upon me. For where could my heart flee from my heart? Where could I escape from myself?”

Even if we have a date on Valentine’s that doesn’t mean we’ll be happy. Unless we are secure in God’s love and secure with ourselves the way we are, then romance won’t fill our deepest longings. Only God can do that. We can’t be like St. Augustine and try to fill our deepest longings with material goods or sex. Sex without attachment will only hurt us, if not now, then someday. My purpose of this post isn’t to start a big debate about premarital sex (you can read all of my and my fellow bloggers’ posts on purity if you don’t believe premarital sex is harmful) but my purpose is to remind you that…. God loves you, loves me, and that this Valentine’s, we can all show love for each other instead of getting depressed chasing after the world’s false ideas about love, romance, and sexuality. So much more is waiting for us if we are patient, and I just as much as anyone need to remember this. Happy Valentine’s Day, Everyone!

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