A Reflection on Valentine-Birthday Ash Wednesday: Channel of God’s Love

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A Reflection on Valentine-Birthday Ash Wednesday: Channel of God’s Love

(February 14, 2024)

 

Three important occasions happen today, February 14, 2024. They are Valentine’s Day, my 64th birthday, and Ash Wednesday. This is a rare opportunity to have all three events celebrated on the same day of the year. I could not recall when Ash Wednesday fell on my Valentine-Birthday. As it is now, as I was hearing mass at the Sta. Ana Church in Manila (a childhood birthday tradition), I thought this day being all three celebrated is not only a special day but a significantly challenging day for the rest of my twilight years.

 

A dear friend of mine messaged me and said, among other things, that the world is celebrating my birthday. He was referring to my birthday being on Valentine’s Day. The world celebrates February 14 as Valentine’s Day. I will not discuss why it’s called Valentine’s Day nor why almost everyone in the world celebrates it. My focus would be February 14 as a heart day, a day of love.

 


The 14th of February is popularly known and celebrated as Valentine’s Day. A day where love couples celebrate the day in a very special and intimate way – fine dining, walk in the park, coffee at a gourmet coffeeshop, an intimate moment in a very intimate and private place that’s only for loving couples. Nowadays though, this day is celebrated by anyone and everyone “”IN LOVE.” Love in various manifestations is expressed by a child to the parents, a friend to another friend, a student to a teacher, an employee to the boss, a parishioner to the pastor/priest, an entrepreneur to a client, etc. Almost everyone is inflicted with the love bug. Those who have more in life show love and affection through charitable works to the less fortunate ones. An assortment of love acts is everywhere – a visit to the downtrodden, the sick, the prisoners, the homeless, the so-called “outcasts” of society. The day is filled with love. The Challenge of the day is to love.

 

Since 1960, the year I was born, February 14 is my Birthday. It was the day when the love between Miling and Doray bore their 8th child. Since then, I was privileged to be called the LOVE CHILD. As I grew up, I was referred to the LOVE BOY to LOVER BOY to MR. LOVE to MR. HEART to BRO. LAV…oh, and so much more. I was even, on several instances in high school, a real-life MR. CUPID. In other words, all through my life, being born on Valentine’s Day, I was expected, asked, and known to be LOVE PERSONIFIED. In private, I have loved, been hurt but continued to love. Once I loved a person, no matter if the end is a heartache, still I continue to love. A hopeless romantic that I am, I love and love and love. The challenge of my life is to live in love, to love, and be loved.

 


For this year 2024, Ash Wednesday falls on February 14. It is a day for obligatory fasting and abstinence for the Catholic faithful. A day of repentance when the call for a metanoia begins in a more intense way. It is the day when the faithful is called to a more sincere and deeper fashion. In the Gospel reading Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18, Jesus emphasized the essentials of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. In summary, the call of Jesus was to do all those acts with sincerity and truthfulness. In giving alms, let it not be a show to let the world see that you are doing charity. Hypocrites do that. In praying, it must be in the privacy of your room and the communication would be between God and us. It should never be a show like hypocrites do, a display of piety without depth and sincerity. In fasting, again, the warning of doing it for a show like hypocrites do. One should not be broadcasting to the world that one fasts. It must be discreet, modest but filled with utmost sincerity that God the Father sees and repays those who remain in fidelity with the will of God. The challenge of Ash Wednesday is to live a life of sincerity, truthfulness, and modesty rooted in the call to love God and our fellowmen.

 


This February 14, 2024, where Valentine’s Day, my birthday, and Ash Wednesday is a day where I am personally challenged to live my name, basically. My name, Valentino, denotes LOVE. That my life, the remaining years of my twilight stage, be in the spirit of love. In every way possible, that I may be an instrument of God’s love to everyone whose lives I touch and whose life touches mine. That despite the many challenges that I face, the brokenness of heart, I remain a loving person – able to forgive and ask forgiveness; able to give love and receive love as well.

 

The challenge for me celebrating my birthday on Valentine’s Day every year and this year on Ash Wednesday, is that I be a channel of God’s love.

 

 

Acknowledgments:

 

-         https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDZnSM-nZfc

-         https://www.vectorstock.com/royalty-free-vector/word-love-script-vector-7209113

-         https://quotefancy.com/quote/1594766/Themis-Tolis-To-love-is-nothing-To-be-loved-is-something-But-to-love-and-be-loved-that-s

-         https://www.facebook.com/TownleyChurch/

 

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