IN HIS homily on Valentine’s Day, Pope Francis reminded all that love is “not a mere emotion, a psycho-physical state…it is a relationship, a growing reality.”
May I also say that one’s heart can be filled with overflowing love for someone, but it can also bleed, not because it is not willing to forgive and to love again, but because it is willing to love heroically and unconditionally?
This Sunday’s Scripture Readings talk about fidelity. The Book of Sirach states: “If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live.” In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus teaches: “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’ mean ‘No’. Jesus also says that he came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.
In this regard, Pope Francis is right in urging us in his Valentine’s Day homily to ask ourselves if it is possible to love one another “forever”. Pope Francis explained: “Today many people are afraid of making decisions that affect them for their lives, because it seems impossible…and this mentality leads many who are preparing for marriage to say, ‘We will stay together for as long as our love lasts’…. We must not allow ourselves to be conquered by ‘throwaway culture’.”
Love, therefore, is about fidelity to the person we love and the people that God entrusted to us. No matter how tough the goings are in any relationship, whether it is marriage, family, or friendship, we must be willing to remain in love, to keep our promise to love “forever”.
This kind of love must be mutual, meaning that the two people in a relationship must have the same heroic attitude. Despite the hurts and the disappointments, both are willing to love and to be for each other forever because of their fidelity to God and to each other. Both should be willing to resolve the conflicts in their relationship.
Hence, it is important that the two people walk in the ways of God. It is their healthy fear of God and their deep relationship with Him that would allow them to master the art of loving heroically. It is the wisdom of God, which St. Paul describes as “mysterious” and “hidden”, that would make them comprehend and fulfill the act of loving someone heroically.
Be it Valentine’s Day or not, may our lives be filled with the wisdom of God to love someone and others heroically!
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Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
