Valentine’s Day: ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8)

Hello February, the month I was born and the month when spring comes around the street; the month when branches and leaves sprout.

Hello February, welcome the new spring with gentle rays of sunlight dispelling the cold of winter and warming the trees, flowers and even sleeping hearts.

February is the month of the traditional Lunar New Year with family and loved ones. Welcome, New Year, with many new hopes, peace, happiness and goodness.

I was welcomed into this life on Feb. 12. February is also the time when Valentine’s season comes and the atmosphere is filled with the love of a Valentine’s Day for couples to give each other passionate love.

I love February, so I’m one year older, let’s welcome the new age with new colors in the new year full of happiness and prosperity.

Everyone has love, but not everyone understands and lives the value of true love. I am no exception. Some people say Valentine’s Day is more for couples, and has nothing to do with the love of a priest like me, who dedicates his life to God.

Yes, Valentine’s Day is celebrated as a day of love. Lovers will send each other love letters, fresh roses, sweet chocolates, passionate kisses and exchange precious words and feelings of love ...

Yet, if Valentine’s Day is celebrated as a day of love, then where does love come from? We must return to the One who is the Source of love and is love, because love comes from God.

Saint John asserted: “God is love.” (1 John 4:8) It is an opportunity to help me think about the One who is the Source of Love, giving love to couples and husband and wife. At the same time, it is also an opportunity for me to look back at the love of dedicating my life to God. All for the love of God!

Life without love is meaningless. If so, our life is just grass, trees, wood and stone. Love is the reason for life, it is mysterious. The more we love, the more we feel life is beautiful, lovely and discover many wonderful things. But how to love in order to have true, loyal love is not a simple matter.

At the beginning of the creation of the universe, according to Genesis, God created man and woman to support each other. At first, God created Adam without Eve. Adam was alone, standing up and sitting down, looking at the animals he had just named, all in pairs, and none of them were similar to him, so he felt something was missing that he didn’t even know. And, God felt sorry for him, so he said: “It is not good for the man to be alone” (Gen 2:18), so God took one of Adam’s ribs to create a woman, Eve. When he had a woman by his side, Adam was happy and exclaimed: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man this one has been taken.” (Gen 2:23).

Thus, from the very beginning, men turned to women, as if searching for something lost. Women have turned to men as if searching for their own origin. This secret tendency has pushed men and women to come together. And the man and woman found each other, starting a magical love relationship.

Men and women coming together can create a noble and magical love. But it is also possible that they come together without sincerity and without love.

A noble and magical love is one that dares to sacrifice for each other. Dare to sacrifice for each other will make love more sacred; they always want the best for the one they love even if they have to sacrifice themselves, as the Lord taught: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13). If the lover encounters difficulties and sadness in life, they will sacrifice everything of themselves to share and bear the suffering of the lover with the wish that the lover will be joyful and happy.

Thus, for a couple to be able to say: “I belong to my lover, and my lover belongs to me” (Song 6:3), they need to have a noble and sincere love. Through the Song of Songs, God reveals to us that we are loved by God with a sincere, selfless and sublime love like a young man loving a girl. Evidence of God's love for humanity is fully expressed through Jesus Christ.

It can be said that many young people misunderstand the nature of love between couples, because they reject Christ and his teachings. Christ is the witness and the perfect model of perfect love. He loved humanity so much that he “sacrificed his life for humanity.” Through the example of Christ’s love for humanity, Gandhi summarized a characteristic of love: “Love never claims, it ever gives. Love ever suffers, never resents never revenges itself.”

By accepting the human condition and living a human life as a mortal of Jesus, God wants couples who love each other to know how to put aside their egos, to know how to accept each other’s differences.

Through Jesus’ death on the Cross, God wants young couples to love each other with sincere love, “dare to sacrifice their lives for the person they love.”

Through the Sacrament of the Eucharist, Jesus promised to stay with humanity until the end of the world. God wants couples to love each other for life, to become “belonging to each other,” that is, to move toward the beautiful love of marriage.

Thus, the love of a couple is an image of God’s love for mankind. And a couple’s love only becomes great and magical when they know how to live according to God’s teachings and thanks to God’s grace.

Thanks to that, the couple’s love is truly sacred and lasting, and “Deep waters cannot quench love, nor rivers sweep it away.” (Song 8,7)

Very Reverend Christopher Hai Tran is the pastor and rector of the National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague