This year’s Lent, the observance of forty days spiritual exercise — fasting and praying by the Christian faithful, especially the Catholics, all over the world, begins on Ash Wednesday, February 14. So also, the world would be celebrating Valentine’s Day, when gifts of various kinds, including flowers and other sundry items would be exchanged, especially by the young people. Those who do not truly understand the real message of Valentine’s Day celebration often times celebrate it carnally, and at the end, bring upon themselves sorrow and misery.
Could it be that God is talking to us through these events? By Wednesday, the Lenten period begins, with ash administered on the forehead of Christian faithful, reminding us that from ash we were made and unto ash, we shall return. The world also remembers the event that culminated to, and including the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross, whose life and teachings became the foundation of the Christian faith. For St. Valentine, in whose honour the day is marked, he was willing to give up his life in pursuit of love and marriage. The question therefore is; Would you be ready and willing to do the same for those you profess you love? What do we learn as Christians from the coincidence of Valentine’s Day celebration and Ash Wednesday?
Shall we continue to throw caution to the wind, looking at events that are unfolding in our societies, and forget that these events have message for each one of us, which is love that Christ Himself represents. While we observe and celebrate, it calls for self-examination and deep sense of reflection on one’s own life, the society and our world that is fast eroding, virtually in all things that makes us human. We hear and read from various media account how marriage of man and woman, hitherto instituted by God for procreation, is fast becoming union of same sex. Surprisingly, most countries of the world have approved of this.
Besides, there are also tales of marriages between human and animals, and how such unions are lavishly celebrated by God’s image; so also other despicable stories that should not be heard or imagined among men, happening in our time. The message on every Ash Wednesday remains very instructive and apt. It continues to point to the direction Christ wants us to follow, by infusing in us the real idea of love different from what secularism has turned the Valentine celebration into, in our world of today. The stories of misery, sorrow, disease, hunger, deprivation, injustice, persecution, bribery, corruption, perversion of justice, killings and maiming, and all, point to the fact that Jesus’ message of love is the only hope for mankind against what our society, and by extension, the people of the world are pursuing.
The message of Christ’s love which is agape, the true sense of love is clear, and because mankind has strayed, and given its own interpretation of love, this accounts to the confusion in our world today. This season of Lent therefore, calls for complete turnaround from our old ways and embrace completely the message of true love which these celebrations and observance depict.
We are called to make selfless efforts and deny ourselves some of the things that drag us down and separate us from the love of God. The cardinal pillars of lent remain; alms giving, prayer and fasting. These things we must pursue during this solemn period and after the season as Christ’s followers, and as soldiers of the Cross! We are called to reflect spiritually and not carnally as the world would want us. Those that worship God, worship Him in truth and spirits (John 4 vs 23 – 24).
