Rev. Noriel C. Capulong
On the day after tomorrow, we will be observing the traditional Valentines Day.
Actually, the history or origin of Valentines Day is rather obscure. The Encyclopedia says that it started as a Roman festival of Lupercalia, as an annual fertility celebration held every Feb. 15. But in the year 496, Pope Gelasius recast this pagan festival as a Christian feast day every Feb. 14 in honor of St. Valentine.
More recently, however, in 1969, the Catholic church revised its liturgical calendar, and removed the feast days of saints whose historical origins are questionable; St. Valentine became one of the casualties.
But even with its rather unclear, obscure origins, we just have to deal with this occasion since people are observing it with much devotion and even passion.
Valentines day should actually be reinterpreted by Christians in the context only of God’s love. This is an occasion when we are supposed to be focusing on the theme of God’s gift of love.
We thank God for this gift of sustaining love so generously poured upon us all. At the same time, we also thank God so much for people with whom we experience a measure of God’s love, the love of our family, our parents, our children, our siblings, our spouses, relatives, our dear friends, best friends, and for the singles, their significant others .
Knowing and experiencing that we are loved, and are able to love, and that we are part of a loving relationship definitely would give us a feeling of being truly and completely human, experiencing the joys and the best, and the most profound of human experiences, giving us a clear, concrete indicator of what it means to be human, all because we can experience love, and we can respond to an expression of love.
We are not robots, not machines. We are humans meant to love and be loved. This could be the best gift a loving God can give to his beloved children. As Christians, we know that this gift, in its most profound expression, came in the form of a human being, in the person of Jesus Christ.
This gift of love, the capacity to experience being loved, and the ability to respond in love is something we need to affirm especially in these days of a rising atmosphere of lovelessness.
For many places in this world are seething with the spirit of hatred, bitter conflict, animosity, division and antagonism, and even war, with very little room for reconciliation and peacemaking. Here we see much sadness, the government’s cancellation of the peace talks with the communist rebels, and the ensuing declaration of an all-out war against the rebel group.
Even now, there are continuing attempts to close borders in various nations including the United States on all travelers coming from certain countries practicing a disfavored religion, all driven by the spirit of fear of terrorism, insecurity, hatred, and revival of racism, and a rising spirit of prejudice, chauvinism, and exclusivism.
In these days when governments have become so drowned in the spirit of supposed national self interest, national security, when some people could just fall victims of rejection, unjust accusations, uncalled for labeling, outright persecution and even execution, the church becomes the last bastion and refuge for those who fall by the wayside.
The church becomes the only institution that can speak and proclaim the gospel, that proclaims God’s love for all people regardless of who or what and from where they come. The church becomes the last option for those looking for hope and peace in a seemingly- hopelessly violent world.
When we talk of God’s love, however, we are talking of relationships, responsive and responsible relationships, sensitive to the feelings and situations always of the other.
That is why we need to look also at the way we may have participated in the emergence and perpetuation of an atmosphere of division instead of unity, an atmosphere of ill will instead of goodwill for all people in various places, not excluding ours.
We are actually a community of various interests, sometimes even opposing, if not clashing interests — like that of the teacher-administrator, employee-employer, union-management relations — to the point that relationships can be antagonistic, and good will becomes undermined.
Still, we need to address the issues at hand, and look inward as a community of the church. Although we claim to be a community of forgiven and redeemed sinners, the church continues to carry in its ways, the marks of its sinful past until it achieves full sanctification.
In its present state, some among the faithful — because of clashing interests or even clashing personalities — may have offended others resulting in broken relationships. And this could result in some people deciding to stop attending church, or going to another churches just to avoid meeting certain personalities.
The church, however, is supposed to have a built-in mechanism for restoring broken relationships. In the spirit of love, we are supposed to be sensitive enough to the feelings of those whom we may have hurt, or whom we may have offended, and then have the humility to approach and offer an apology, and listen to the depth of the hurt of the other person.
This is the kind of humility and repentant spirit we can see in Jacob, as he prays to God for help, and musters the courage to face his brother Esau whom he had deeply hurt before, by robbing him of his birthright, and the coveted blessing from his father, and whom he now fears so much.
Jacob was so bothered by his guilty conscience. He even offered to some generous gifts to his brother as his way of making amends to show his sincerity, a kind of penance or reparations, to repair the damage he caused in their relationship.
Esau, on the other hand, became so touched by this humble and repentant spirit shown by Jacob that he just embraced and kissed his long-lost brother, as both of them wept.
The hatred, the antagonism, the earlier desire to kill as vengeance suddenly disappeared. Once again, each one saw the other as a brother worth embracing, loving, and accepting.
We are supposed to be relating and treating each other as brothers and sisters no matter how serious may have been the offense of one, and no matter how different others may be — in their ways, in their beliefs, and perspective — as we are all children of one parent God.
And as Christians, we are supposed to know how to settle conflicts and differences, always committed to speaking the truth in love, [Ephesians 4;15], willing always to listen to each other, each one always given a chance to express the hurt, the pains, as well as his/her higher concerns, values, and dreams in life.
Failure to reach out, however, conflicts and antagonism, even hatred and anger, will remain with people simply avoiding each other, not speaking to each other.
Coming to worship, according to Matthew, with such unresolved conflicts makes the worship all so empty and void of real meaning.
Go back first to that person. Make up. Ask for forgiveness. Be willing to forgive. Make amends. And then go and proceed with your worship.
That spirit that cares to reach out, listen, forgive and accept is a must in a church which claims to be the extension and proclaimer of the very presence of a loving Christ.
This is a church where everyone who comes would feel he/she is welcome, accepted, affirmed, and loved. This place is supposed to be where there is space for God’s grace to dwell for everyone to concretely experience.
In increasingly-alarming times like these, we can still proclaim what Jesus had been proclaiming long ago, that in this church you are welcome, whatever and whoever you are, you are affirmed as a brother or a sister, a fellow child of God.
In this church, there is a space for you to experience God’s forgiving grace and love embracing you, where your hurts and pains can be heard, and wherever you are, open, where your conflicts with each other can be given a space to be heard and settled in a most loving, forgiving manner.
This is the least we can do in witnessing and proclaiming a God who is love, a God who forgives, and a God who redeems us all through the sacrifice that his son Jesus had undertaken for all of us.
That is why, we can only remain so profoundly thankful for this most precious gift given to us. In response, we can only continue to commit ourselves to the mission of becoming God’s instrument in sharing, proclaiming this love to all others, in all seasons, not just during Valentines, whoever, wherever, and whatever they are.
Silliman Church can, therefore, make the claim that even in the midst of so much hate and lovelessness in this world, we are doing our humble share in lessening the hate, reducing the division, increasing the levels of reconciliation, and proclaiming even more emphatically the need for love, the need for grace to once again dominate in our midst, and in the rest of the world.
May this love of God which impels us to rejoice and celebrate continue to fill and bless our lives now and always.
