VALENTINE’S DAY

FEBRUARY 13, 2009

February 14 is Valentine’s Day, the day when cards, chocolates, and flowers will be sent or given, and when romantic love will be renewed in the hearts of many.

According to the Greeting Card Association over one billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent in the United States, making this day second only to Christmas in cards sent. Add to this the phenomenon of email greeting cards, and the total is much higher. Women purchase most of the cards. Men account for most of the chocolate and flower sales. The number of locations producing chocolate products reported by the U.S. Census in 2003 was 1,271. These establishments employed 43,379 people. The total volume of sales was $13.5 billion (yes, billion). Wow!

In the same year, flower sales generated $422 million. After Christmas and Mother’s Day, more flowers and plants are sold for Valentine’s Day than for any other, including Easter, Thanksgiving, and Father’s Day. Sixty-five percent of all purchases are made by men. When it comes to roses, men account for 78% of purchases. The flowers were supplied by 22,022 florists nationwide, employing 113,270 workers.

As of 2003 there were 28,527 jewelry stores in the United States, offering engagement, wedding, and other rings to lovers of all ages. In February, 2005 alone, these stores sold $2.4 billion worth of jewelry, manufactured by an industry that profited $8.6 billion that year.

Probably none of these figures has varied much between then and now.

While Valentine’s Day has become an enduring part of our culture, I wonder how many of those who celebrate the day know how it started?

The pre-Christian roots of the day seem to have originated in ancient, pagan Rome, where a fertility celebration took place every February 15th. After the Christianization of the Roman Empire, Pope Gelasius, around the year 496, probably wanting to replace the pagan ideas of carnal love with a Christian vision of love as a pure, spiritually ennobling, and holy act of self-donation, established February 14 as St. Valentine’s Day. But why that date, and who was Valentine?

The Roman Martyrology lists two martyrs named Valentine on February 14: One was a priest of Rome who apparently died around 269, and one was the Bishop of Terni, whose death is recorded in the Martyrology of St. Jerome. Some speculate that both figures are one and the same.

According to one story, the Emperor Claudius II issued a decree that prohibited all marriages, thinking that unmarried men would be more likely to join his army, and that unmarried men made better soldiers. Valentine ignored this decree and continued to perform marriages until he was arrested and eventually put to death. According to a related legend, while he was in prison awaiting death, the daughter of his jailer developed affection for him, and he for her. Before being taken away for execution, the story has it that he wrote her a farewell note and signed it, “From your Valentine”. As a result, he became the saint of lovers, and the custom developed of exchanging Valentine cards and other tokens of love on his feast day. As a footnote, in 1969 the Church removed his name from the calendar of saints because no facts regarding the identity or alleged fate of the obscure figure of Valentine could be verified.

What does Valentine’s Day tell us about ourselves? It seems to say that we take love very seriously. And why should we not? God created us to love and be loved. Love is the end purpose of our existence. Without love, we cannot survive in any truly human sense. It is not by bread alone that we are sustained, but by the word of God, which is love, and which enters our hearts directly from him, or indirectly through the love he puts in the hearts of others for us. Valentine’s Day reminds us that we very much need ways of showing and giving love and we’re willing to spend a lot of money to purchase simple gifts that express our love. We also need to receive love, and Valentine’s Day provides a simple way of asking for it. A card that says, “Be my Valentine” is saying, “My heart desires the love of your heart. Would you love me?” The Lord must take delight in seeing his children give and receive love in so many creative ways!

The world around us often seems to be so empty of love. The daily news are filled with reports of acts of cruelty, violence, and hatred. So many people struggle to cope with unfulfilled dreams and broken promises. It must have been these kinds of experiences that prompted William Sharp to describe the heart as “A lonely hunter that hunts on a lonely hill.”

Valentine’s Day brings a welcome opportunity to open our hearts to release the love that is within them, and to let in the love that others want to give us. Some will indulge in the commercial side of the day; others will not. To all I say: strive to spend a part of the day remembering God’s love. Let us each speak our love to him in the sincerest and most deliberate way we can, from the depths of our hearts. God, too, says to each of us, “I desire the love of your heart. Would you love me?”

+Bishop Raymundo J. Peña

last updated 11-Jan-2010 8:22 sitemap