ON VALENTINE’S DAY: HOW CAN WE CONTEMPLATE A LOVE BEYOND EXPECTATION?

 

Well, I gave up trying to resolve a connection with this secularized celebration. What put me over the edge and made me a little cynical about it all was seeing this commercial during the Super Bowl and reflecting on it. It presented the famous four Greek words for ‘love,’ made most famous by the English writer C.S. Lewis. Of course, it caught my attention – how often does my Ancient Greek make national TV?! My cynicism kicked in when I noticed the commercial’s definition of agape love was pretty off-base, and then again when I saw that it was New York Life Insurance peddling their wares by implying that they were a paradigm of agape. What?!?! An insurance company suggesting they are an ideal practitioner of the self-sacrificial love that, in the Christian tradition, God teaches us through Jesus? Nope. Not even close.

Hallmark and FTD Florists may not appreciate my attempts to contradict New York Life and infuse something deeper into a day to celebrate love. What I want to say doesn’t fit in a greeting card. St. Ignatius says what I want the holiday, and every day, to be about. At the end of the Spiritual Exercises, he gives a profound contemplation on love in a few parts.

First, he suggests I prayerfully consider all the blessings God has given and how I want to make an offering in return. Then, I contemplate the way that God dwells in all of creation, including me; so again, how do I wish to respond? Next, Ignatius leads me to pray about how God is continually and strenuously laboring with and for and in all of creation, working without rest and bringing me to fruition; what offering should I make? Then, I should contemplate how God constantly pours forth blessings and graces and love upon me and creation, like water from a spring or like the rays of the sun shining forth without end. Again, how should I respond? With profound gratitude, and an active return of love.

Here I concede that the New York Life ad got one thing right about agape love: on our part, it is the love of action, courage and sacrifice. (I still don’t get why buying insurance is describable as such!) But Ignatius’ words from the above contemplation on love ring even truer: “Love ought to manifest itself in deeds more than in words.”

May your St. Valentine’s be made full with deeds of divine love!

SIDE NOTE: Looking for a way to pray in Lent? Check out the offerings at the Ignatian Spirituality Program of Denver: a day of prayer at Regis University – The Spirituality of Imperfection – on Saturday, February 29, and a five-week/five-evening retreat at St. Ignatius Loyola Parish – Wednesdays from March 18 to April 22.

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Jim Broderick King '87 is the Director of Ignatian Spirituality & Formation. He also teaches Latin and has been found some years teaching theology, English and even Ancient Greek. This is his 25th year at Regis Jesuit.