A Collision of Holidays: Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday
15 “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15)
Today we have two holidays landing on the same day of the week, Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday. Neither is a national holiday so there are no days off work and there are only vague social rules about how we celebrate. This is a good day to express love to those we value. This is a day when many go to church and put ashes on their foreheads in the shape of a cross, reminding themselves that they come from dust and go to dust. They have not loved others as themselves, not to mention all the people they value. These people acknowledge they have not lived out love as they would have wanted.
Valentine, as legend goes, was a Roman Christian nobleman who went to the arena to face beasts, giving his life for people he loved so that they could be set free. It was an act that spoke to his Christian faith. His crime was that he believed in a God who incarnated, came to us in human form, and died for us paving the road to eternal life and showing us that not even death can separate us from God. He believed Jesus was God, not the emperor.
This Ash Wednesday is touching to me. Last Fall my husband died, was cremated and indeed returned to ashes. I held those ashes at his funeral and knew that was not him. The kind, gentle person who loved me no longer could reach out and comfort me. I heard others tell all their wonderful memories and I knew also that I had loved him as best I knew how but not perfectly.
Lent starts with Ash Wednesday and the realization that our love, if even like Valoentine’s, is flawed by sin, by self centeredness, exhaustion, and all those short comings we seek to overcome as we travel with another. Some will spend the next 40 days denying themselves something they value to spend more time focusing on what they do value. For example they might skip a meal to pray. Others will add a spiritual discipline to enhance their focus on God. Perhaps they will choose to memorize a new song or a passage of the Bible. Perhaps they will decide to walk around the block each night focusing on the good of each day.
However you weave together the love of Valentine and the repentance of Ash Wednesday, I pray this Lent will be a time of drawing near to the God who walks with us through the loves of our lives and walks with us when life feels like ashes. Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 