Maybe you don’t need me to remind you that today is St Valentine’s Day and as a grumpy old man, I look at these occasions as yet another marketing ploy for companies to re-brand their ordinary product, inflate the price and fleece well meaning members of the public. My wife tells me that I haven’t got a romantic bone in my body and maybe she is right. I remember Valentines Day 1984, I was at work and heard a couple of the girls saying that their boyfriends had bought them flowers, Karen had been my girlfriend for about four months at this time and I hadn’t given Valentines Day a thought, thinking on my feet, I got one of the young lads from the warehouse, gave him my car keys and sent him to a local florist’s shop, to buy a red rose, he wrote a card, to my girlfriend, drove to her work and handed the flower in at reception! She thought I was romantic, she soon learned the truth, almost three years later on our first wedding anniversary, I remembered during the day at work, called at a newsagents on the way home, grabbed a card, wrote it in the car and proudly handed it over as I arrived home only to discover that it said “to my darling wife on our Silver Wedding Anniversary” that possibly set the tone for the last thirty five years!
Interestingly St Valentine might not have been the most romantic bloke around either, he was a priest in the Roman Empire whose life centred on ministering to the persecuted Christians of his day. Inevitably he paid the ultimate price and was martyred, and his body was buried to the north of Rome on February 14th so maybe not the romantic message of the twenty first century St Valentines Day with cards being sent from secret admirers and now a massive marketing drive to impress our loved one. As often happens with these sort of occasions, the commercialism surrounding these days, slightly misses the point, love goes far beyond a single red rose or a box of chocolate. I used to dream of a world where people started to care about one another, where people followed the example of saints like St Valentine and put themselves out to support those in the greatest need and do you know, over the last twelve months, I think that I have seen evidence of that kind of world developing.
By all means send cards, buy flowers, make romantic gestures, why not make the people who matter most to you feel loved and appreciated, there is no harm whatsoever in that, and I am not grumpy enough to pour cold water on all of that. But let us follow the true example of St Valentine, let us support the people in the greatest need, let us give voice to those who are marginalized, let us give practical help in these difficult times, let us praise when others do well, let us listen to the heartaches and joys others are experiencing. If St Valentine’s Day 2021 is going to mean anything, then let us ensure that the Love of God is felt in the hearts and lives of those we know.