Every year February 14th is celebrated as the day of love and romance, yet there are three great ironies associated with this society's celebration of that day. These ironies illustrate the misguided, commercialized, superficial, and hypocritical nature of this modern world, which The New Order embraces.
The Origins of The Day
Although there is some debate on the exact origins of Valentine's Day, there is a popular notion that the celebration originates from the combination of an ancient pagan ritual, a martyr for the Faith, and the conventional belief of when birds pair off.
It appears that in ancient Rome a date was set aside for a love lottery which paired off young men and women by choosing slips of paper with the maiden's name.
It is also said that a holy priest was martyred for secretly marrying couples in violation of an emperor's edict against marriage. His name, was of course, Saint Valentine.
Lastly, it was the conventional belief in the Middle Ages that birds paired off in the middle of February. All three or some of these traditions led to February 14th becoming the day to celebrate love and romance with flowers, letters, and gifts.
The Irony of The Day
Considering what Valentine's Day is supposed to be about and its origins, it is truly ironic what it has become. A day which in pagan times may have reduced love to a lustful lottery, which may or may not have led to marriage was slowly converted to a celebration of love in actions, words, gifts, and song.
That celebration has since been corrupted by the vice of this world to once again highlight the lustful and immoral aspects of love. A day, which may have originated by a martyr's desire to uphold sacred marriage and family now pretends to celebrate a love wherein marriage and family is an option, not a foundation.
This year Valentine's Day takes on an even more bitter irony with the pending decision in the Massachusetts Legislature. One of the greatest destroyers of civilization has been sodomy. The great empires of the past were brought to dust by the sin of homosexuality. A true homophobe is one who abhors the sin, but prays for the sinner. Yet the media has twisted it thanks to the powerful but very, very, very small contingent of sodomite promoters (I refuse to call them "Gay" because that term always represented happiness and jovialness and there is nothing happy or jovial in that sinful lifestyle that chokes the life not only out of the soul, but the body and the mind as well.)
Can there really be love where marriage and family have no place? Isn't all real love based on family and marriage in one way or the other? Is it not lust, which poses as love in those situations where family and marriage are ignored? Is it not perversion which poses as union of love when two people of the same sex demand to be able to "marry and have children and benefits"? Tell me, please, how this is possible without adultery of some form or shape? The facts are facts, folks. No man has ever been able to conceive; no woman able to inseminate. It takes two - a man and a woman united in Holy Matrimony. If not, it is doomed by God. Many believe it has already doomed so many souls.
That brings us to the ultimate irony of Valentine's Day for one of the day's chief symbols is a cupid. What is a cupid? A baby with a bow and arrow. Supposedly this child strikes love into our hearts, but is it not ironic that our society instead strikes out at babies with weapons of abortion? The character symbolic of love in this secular world is precisely a baby, which this secular world rejects in abortions and which is a martyred rejection of love!
True Faith is True Love
It is in our Traditional, True Faith that we find the treasured truths of what love is really about. Christ's sacrifice and His message are our guides and standards of what God truly intended love to be about. St. Paul gave us the famous lines telling us what love is and is not. What is following Christ if not living a life of true love of others?
Our True Faith tells us that we must love God first, others second, and ourselves third. Is this the message we get from The New Order? Everything coming from this New Order tells us that we must love ourselves first, use others as we see fit and convenient, and forget thinking about let alone loving our God! Oh, they don't say it like that. That would be too obvious. No, The New Order both secularly and ecclesially is much more insidious, a little at a time.
Think of the state of the Church 50 years ago. Were there really problems back then? Oh, some, but for the most part, Catholics weren't complaining. They had Love every single day of the week at their neighborhood parish in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Schools were thriving in practically every parish. The biggest day in a Catholic child's life was the day of his or her First Communion. Back then Catholics flooded the confessionals at least monthly if not even more frequently, and reverently they filed up to the Communion rail to kneel and receive the Sacred Host where Christ was truly present Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity from the priest alone. Catholics dressed for Love by putting on their finest for they were going to see their Love - their King. They expressed that love by visiting Christ in the Blessed Sacrament at all hours of the day and by making the Sign of the Cross whenever passing a Catholic church and bowing one's head when hearing the name 'Jesus.' Today, in so many sectors with the name of Jesus being used as curse, one would be like a bobble-head doll. Another sign that The New Order has replaced all that was right and holy.
As an example, 50 years ago every single person who claimed to be Catholic believed in the True Presence of the Blessed Sacrament. Then came Vatican II. Now look at how many believe today? Statistics show that love has fallen off greatly where less than a third of Catholics believe Christ is truly present in the Holy Eucharist. When one compromises on one thing, it is very easy to compromise on another until pretty soon a lasting love has dried up. That is why the True Faith is True Love. The Faith never changes. Despite claims that "we don't do that any more" or "we don't have to believe in that any more," the fact is that each and every Dogma and Doctrine a Catholic believed in before Vatican II a Catholic must believe in after Vatican II. God does not change, nor can His Mystical Bride change. Ergo, man is the one who has changed; man is the one who has erred by embracing The New Order. Do we choose man or God? God is Love. He promises everlasting salvation. Man can promise nothing but false promise. It is your choice. Which love do you choose? And, if we want God's unconditional Love, then what are we willing to give to Him. After all, love is a two-way street.
This Valentine's Day, let us re-commit ourselves to loving God more and our "love life" will be perfectly fine, thank you. We know, as Sacred Scripture and the Sacred Deposit of the Faith assures us, that God will always love us. The key is: will we always love Him? That is the only way to True Love.
No, we will not find true love in the chocolates, notes, flowers, and cards of this New Order and its superficial, hypocritical translation of what love is. We will, however, find that true love in the treasures of our Tradition, where we receive all of the gifts and examples of love that we will ever need! God is Love! Love Him!
