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Although Valentine’s Day originated as a church holiday celebrating the martyrdom of St. Valentine, the Episcopal Church at any rate doesn’t officially recognize the day. So, when I opened my Daily Office lectionary hoping to find something sweet and inspirational on the topic of love, I didn’t find anything of the sort.
Instead, what I found in today’s readings was 1 John 2:3-11. This passage from John’s letter illustrates how difficult it is to love and be loved as Christ truly wants us to be:
Whoever says, ‘I am in the light,’ while hating a brother, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another brother is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.
The obvious admonition here is to love each other, a commandment (as John acknowledges earlier in the passage) that is nothing new to Christians. But John’s take on this commandment points up how very difficult it is to escape from hatred. It is so difficult, in fact, that those caught up in it can’t see for themselves that they are not walking with Christ. The darkness is so blinding that the darkness itself is invisible.
I can fool myself, and frequently do, that I’m walking in the light of Christ even while I still cannot give or accept love. I look at those perceived as enemies and I cannot bring myself to truly love them; I cannot bring myself to truly believe that God, and others, love me. Ultimately, I have trouble loving myself.
Walking the way of Christ is difficult, as I and many others have said before. Perhaps the most difficult demand that Christ makes of us is, on the face of it, the most simple: love each other. This commandment, more than any other, defines what it is to be a follower of Jesus, and yet it is in our history the most violated and the most forgotten. God is love, the hymn goes, and where I can accept love and give love, there I will find God.
