As a Church person thinking about celebrating Valentine’s Day, I’ve wondered why, instead of it on February 14, the Church chose Saints Cyril and Methodius. Cyril was a monk, which naturally takes my mind down to contemplative acts like prayer and grace, while Methodius was a bishop actively involved in world affairs as a shepherd of souls. However, like the world does not care what the Church has recommended, February 14 is globally marked as Saint Valentine’s Day.
While I listened to the readings proposed by the Church to guide our daily reflections and meditations on February 14, 2025, Friday of the Fifth Sunday in the Ordinary Time of the Church’s Year (see Genesis 3:1-8; Mark 7:31-37), especially about the temptation of Adam and Eve, my mind roved like a rollercoaster, and I said: Wait a minute! Did the Church’s recommendations that we celebrate Cyril and Methodius instead of Valentine have anything to do with the seemingly corroded ways of thinking about the interactions between sexualized entities and our somewhat distorted mindsets? Well, I am not sure! The Scriptures indeed said that Satan tempted Eve, and Eve tempted Adam in the Book of Genesis. But should that imply we should begin to consider one another as objects of temptation and not of grace? No! We are God’s creatures; we are beautiful. We are awesomely created to edify the rest of creation (Psalm 139: 14). We are not subjects or objects of temptation.
My thoughts today include that God has placed each person for specific purposes in other people’s lives. There was a reason Jesus went by Sidon to the Sea of Galilee into the district of the Decapolis (Mark 7:31-37). He could have used a different route, but he chose the way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee because he had a miracle scheduled to perform along that route. I want to believe that in the same way, God lets us walk along specific routes to meet one another and make the outcomes of such meetings awesomely memorable. Let us use the opportunities of every meeting to bring smiles to people’s faces, just as St. Valentine did and as it reflected in the lives of the individuals the Church has recommended we celebrate as well on February 14, Saints Cyril and Methodius. That is what Lover’s Day or Valentine’s Day means, as I understand it.