Like most holidays, particularly in the United States, Valentines day is mostly the product of commercialization. When much money is made by a pseudo affection act of the giving of cards, flowers, candy, or some expression of love and appreciation which in all reality should be a daily activity. The day is named for Saint Valentine, largely a traditional monk little noted until Geoffrey Chaucer's Parliament of Foules, had no such tradition before Chaucer. The tradition has persisted since the 18th century largely because one catholic monk, and much conjecture about a bishop of the basilica of Terni, who supposedly advanced the idea for a day for lovers.
There has always been, particularly in this country, a fascination with love stories, particularly involving celebrities such as Hollywood stars. I have a very large collection of old Hollywood movie magazines from the 1930’s thru the 1950’s each pictured with some famous Hollywood star and each filled with some escapade or episode involving celebrity indiscretions. Fortunes have been made by writers of contrived, often very sick, imaginations involving “love stories.” Some of the wealthiest writers in this country have turned out “love story” books of sensual, provocative, sexual debauchery, to satisfy the inner most sinful instincts of the most gullible. Mental wards in hospitals and prison cells are full of not only men but also women who felt their lives were cheated by not being able to participate in these physical, sexual, acrobatics of bed hopping, and satisfying the most depraved instincts of the human mind.
Church pews or even the waters at Lourdes, cathedrals and sanctuaries around the world where God, “Who is love.” Many who have never yet learned the true and only commandment that was given to us as Christians “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” ( John 13:34)
It amazed me in the Pyrenees at Lourdes where 8 million Catholics go each year on a pilgrimage, that there are 204 tourist type shops where owners are more interested in getting into the pilgrim's pocket selling such things as a cigarette lighter of the Virgin Mary then the anxious faith of believers who have made the effort of getting to the healing waters of the grotto.
History is marked by warfare increasing prison populations, (murder, rape, robbery, etc) Increased divorce rates, orphaned children, throw away elderly grandparents and the greatest holocaust of all, the abortion of the unborn and partially born.
Human love is really demonstrated when a parent can love a disabled child and continue to love and support a disabled companion. “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.” (John 15: 13) Warfare is dominated by the citations of those who have given life and limb in the protection of their fellow country men. The sanctity of civil life is marked by men and women who have put personal safety at risk for their fellow man. In a world of insanity (crooked politicians, greedy financial wizards, pride and lust of the most incompetent among us) the character and decency of our many fellow citizens and their willingness to give up themselves is the only encouraging incentive of living.
I believe in the absolutes of life: right and wrong. I was raised in a home where our entire existence was built around family, church, and school. In my youth, it was a home of poverty, it did not stay that way because of my parents and their value system, in a country of freedom to accomplish, achieved wealth and progress for their children and themselves.
Graduating from a very small educational facility (13 in my graduating class), the county schools superintendent, recognizing my IQ and ability, made arrangements for me to enter the university. I was already a Christian in a very non-Christian university environment. It was sitting on a stone fence near the University Wilson Library one day in 1949 (I could take you to the very spot today) that I came to a realization of love which has determined every action of my life, that has helped me to endure the absolute darkness of blindness of the past 40 years. It was a matter of hunger, I was completely out of money to buy food, I knew that if I just gave up, packed up, and went home, their was not much else (not even inside plumbing) but there would be food. God came to me in a very real way with scripture which I had learned as a child. “There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life: as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee: I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.” (Joshua 1:5)
I was reminded that I worked in an area which had large leather lounge chairs. Many times, money falls out of pockets into those chairs, that very afternoon, after everyone had left the large medical library, I went through the cushion area of all the chairs and found enough money to keep me eating until I was paid the next time. There is a very famous hymn with a line, “O love that will not let me go, I cast my eyes on thee.” I still cast these blind eyes on the one who has enough love for me not to let me go.
One of the worlds least known and yet most famous poets Francis Thompson, born in 1859 and who died in 1907, is best known for his famous line “ love is a many splendid thing.” His most famous poem describes God as “ the hound of heaven who pursues those whom he loves in spite of themselves”. Thompson who dropped out of medical school and who’s real love was literature, was a prolific reader and writer. Like many of today’s youth, he sold out to drug addiction and spent most of his life as a homeless vagrant sleeping under the carts of the English farmers who brought their produce to the London market. Doing enough odd jobs to feed his stomach and drug habit. His only friend on the street was a prostitute for whom he wrote one of his most famous poems, and who kept telling him his mind was too good to be thrown away like the trash in which he was sleeping. He finally sent some of his writings to a British newspaper and it took nine months for the editors to find this genius. In their attempt to rehabilitate him he was sent to a catholic monastery, and in his many walks in the meadow surrounding the abbey, he met a young girl named Daisy Stanford, whose tender demeanor brought change to his heart and he learned to love children. This love of children is shown in many of his writings. In a cemetery, north of London, you will find his tombstone as did I with his name, date of birth (1859 to 1907), and engraved on the tombstone are these words “look for me in the nurseries of heaven.”
This writer was never fortunate enough although married, to know the love of a woman (as Charlton Heston has said many people are such good pretenders) and I never knew of the love of children or grandchildren. If, on this valentines day, you have the love of family and friends (it has been said that most people are indeed fortunate to have 5 real friends) then you are very fortunate. Someone has said that a friend is someone whom you can go and ask for $50 and they will not ask you a question at all and just give you the money. How many friends do most of us have? On this valentines day, with its commercialization like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Mothers Day, etc “love is a many splendid thing.”
No comments:
Post a Comment