Valentine's Day

This coming week on Tuesday we will celebrate
Valentine’s Day. It is a day when cards drop through letter
boxes and extraordinary messages and verses appear in
newspapers. Do they all mean what they say? The same
card could be bought by several different people – one
could be sent because the sender was joking; one because a
kind friend wanted to make sure that at least one Valentine
card was received; another may be dispatched out of pity,
and one, of course, because he or she really did love
someone. All the same words, travelling through the postal
system, arriving on the same day, yet how different the
feelings and intentions of the senders. For some the words
were truth – others would say that, no, they didn’t really
mean them.
In this weekend’s Gospel we hear Jesus insisting that
we look into the motives of actions; that we go behind the
statement of the law to what lives in the heart. For most of
the Jewish people the law was the ultimate revelation of
God, a secure guide to good conduct, containing in itself all
wisdom. This Jesus would not accept. Not that he denied
the law, but neither was he to be fulfilled by it. Instead
Jesus was its perfection and fulfillment. He was the way
and the wisdom!
Consequently, we find Jesus continually taking an
aspect of the Jewish law which at first he seems to uphold,
but then he gives it a more profound meaning, lifting it
from the “letter” into the Spirit. He moves away from the
safety and salvation bestowed by observing rules to the
motives for which each individual is responsible. Thus we
can see that our relationships are so important, with others
and with God, who so often presents himself in those about
us. All these relationships spring from our attitudes of
heart and mind. Whatever prevents us from properly caring
for others, whatever threatens to separate us from God,
whatever may by appearance seduce us, these we must let
go! We must not allow God to be taken from us nor
prevent his love from reaching others, and our law will then
truly express what is in our hearts! In other words, we
obey God’s law by listening to the Spirit’s voice in the
depths of our hearts, by acting with wisdom, honesty and
compassion.