(VALENTINE SPECIAL ADDRESS)
Etymologically, Valentine depicts a name but contemporarily, depicts a period of time; a supposed time where love intentions can be publicly expressed. Valentine is celebrated once at the earth’s revolvement around the sun; February 14 and is widely conceded to be lover’s day and the expression of affection among friends, families, relatives, the less privileged and of course, our enemies.
The etymology of the name “Valentine” engendered from a third-century martyrdom of a Roman priest by emperor Claudius 11 Gothicus around 270AD. In this legendary event, the priest while in prison and shortly before his death, scribbled a letter signed “from your Valentine “, to the daughter of his jailer. It was then celebrated as the feast of Saint Valentine but had been suppressed during the 1969 revision of the Roman Calendar.
In regard to time, the celebration of Valentine’s day (not Saint) has its origin which emanates from an ancient Roman festival called LUPERCALIA, which is celebrated annually on 15th of February. It was a purification and fertility rite associated with the god FAUNUS, an old Italian rural deity and the grandson of Saturn typically represented as half goat and half human in Grecian mythology, who protected herds of sheep from wolves and is known as bestower of fruitfulness on the fields and flocks. Faunus is associated with merriment and its festivity is characterized by revelry and sheer abandon with the coupling of men and women by balloting. In the old Roman empire, Lupercalia is a festivity in celebration of FERTILITY, though partially held in honour of Faunus and is supervised by a group of flamen called Luperci. The Christian church appropriated this festivity as the feast of purification in AD 494. Hence, Lupercalia was replaced as Valentine’s Day, and from about that period (14th century) it was celebrated as a day of love expression and as a feast day in memory of Valentine (Saint) by the church.
Apart from an inconsiderable number of Christians and even among the majority of them, less is known of these origins and especially its essence, not merely a perfunctory pagan rite appropriated by the Christian church but the aura of purity, fecundity and the divine which is inherent. Presently, the spirit and ambience of valentine festivity worldwide is hinged on love, where love itself has been classified as Agape, Filial and Romantic love. The first, Agape love relates to the love of God for man as well as man’s reciprocal love for God which in turn is extended to the love shared among men on earth (love of one’s fellow man). The second, Filial love borders on family relationship and the bond which endears children towards their parents. The third, Romantic love depicts a relationship between a man and a woman, that’s two opposite sex who exude sensuous endearing traits and are passionately inclined towards each other, especially that express by couples. There’s also a fourth, Platonic love, but which has no serious emotional or divine attachments and is shared among friends, neighbours and strangers. Nevertheless are the former three intertwined. Though God supports procreation through sexual intercourse and the cordial affiliations shared by families (just as the Holy Family) and the ties between men, but these virtues have often been abuse and sometimes in the name of festivity like Valentine’s day where malefactors and ignorant people take advantage of the situation to perpetrate evil that abuse the true nature and purpose of the festivity. So that some people have come to the conclusion that love is deadly, cruel or bitter or that true love does not exist or still that such festivity is diabolic and carnal which should be effaced. And today in our very society, there is no difference between lust and what people practiced as love for we now equate love with beauty, status wealth and erotic desire.
The foundation of this love herself, which we celebrate in the name of Valentine is embedded in GOD, for we are told God is love and out of love for sinful man sent His only son to die for us (John 3:16); and in the Gospel Book of John 15:12, Jesus commanded us to love one another as He Himself has loved us and that “The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to lay down his life for them”. Human love would be temporal and fraught with limitations if it has no base in the love of God that has been made perfect and eternal and in seeking knowledge of the depth of love, there’s need to be spiritual as well as philosophical. Love is the greatest boundless force and encompasses every good thing. And most times are our actions and inactions influenced by love. Some attributes of love are explicated in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, and moreover, the compendium (Whole) of God’s words is summarized as “Love God and love your neighbour” for in love, there is the fullness and fruitfulness of life.
A most negligible ideal of Valentine revolves not in the interplay of romance but on piety, reconciliation, the fostering of unity and rekindling of hope. Today, Valentine is a day when husband and wife separate for an extra-marital relationship; children disobey their parents to go have a time out and engage in orgies; people spend their hard-earned money for gifts to friends and incur expenses on clubbing, dinning and going to parks; people deceive and lure themselves into adultery, fornication and debauchery. But we forget those in prisons, the weary in hospitals, the less privileged, the handicapped, those without father or mother in squalid homes, the hungry, the homeless, the frustrated, those languishing in abject poverty who are everywhere before us and within them begging for our love and mercy. For there is no other love that can inspire us and turn our hearts towards these people except the love that comes from God, the Agape love. And it is for the sake of these people that a time like this, Valentine’s Day, is celebrated.
It is also a time for broken homes to be reconciled; for delinquent children to reconsider their stand and return to the guiding rules and love of their parents; for parents to ease their sternness for a moment by expressing an open love to their children; for husbands and wives to rekindle their love as once at the altar of God, by also doing something extra-ordinary for themselves. It is a moment for fiancé and fiancées’ and lovers right for the moment, to reinstate and establish their genuineness of love. It is also a time for those devoid of love and seeking for love and to be loved to pray, offer sacrifices of alms giving and other good deeds and reinvigorate their hope. But it is never a time to indulge in sexual immorality; for according to the letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians, “Our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”.
Everyday of our life must be valentines’ but let us use today as a time of sober reflection on the theme of love, a time to act on the good works which love beget and a time to teach others the essence of love for God and for man. For St. Paul clearly states that the greatest of the three Faith, Hope and Love, is Love (1 Corinth. 13:13).
The faith we profess, the church we attend, the amount of knowledge we have of the Bible may amount to nothing at judgment when God shall separate us in two and said to the first group “Come you blessed of my father and possess the kingdom prepared for you. For when I was hungry, you feed me….” And so the other group was damned because they failed in this act of love. (See Mathew 25, 36-41).
solomonthrone 