Tuesday, February 14, 2023

 Memorial of Saint Cyril, monk, and Saint Methodius, bishop

(Genesis 6:5-8.7:1-5.10; Mark 8:14-21)

Oddly the Church does not celebrate St. Valentine today.  Instead, she remembers Saints Cyril and Methodius, ninth-century missionaries to the Slavic lands.  This is not to say that the Church has little regard for romantic love, much less love in general.  Saints Cyril and Methodious showed their love for God and for peoples by leaving their native land to give Christ to foreigners.  Christ is the supreme model of spousal love.  He gave his life to save his bride, the Church. 

Today’s gospel gives indication of his sacrifice.  Mark writes that the disciples forgot to bring bread.  Amazingly, they still had one loaf with them in the boat.  That loaf is none other than Jesus himself.  Then he reminds his companions of the double feeding of the multitudes.  These miracles were a prefiguration of the Eucharist in which Jesus gives his disciples his body to eat and his blood to drink!  He did not mean to be ghoulish by this action but to show his love completed the next day on the cross.

The world exaggerates the importance of sexual love.  Today every person is suspected of either playing out her or his sexual fantasies or dangerously suppressing them.  We Christians offer the world a critical corrective.  We proclaim Christ crucified as the measure of real love – romantic, fraternal, or extended to foreigners.

Monday, February 14, 2022

 Memorial of Saints Cyril, monk, and Methodius, bishop

(James 1:1-11; Mark 8:11-13)

It said that more chocolate is sold on Valentine’s Day than any other day of the year.  Valentine’s Day is obviously serious business.  There is another way in which it is serious business.  More and more it deals with romantic love. 

Once valentine cards were passed around mostly by children in school.  Before Facebook’s “likes,” the number of valentines received indicated one’s popularity.  With the Sexual Revolution the practice of Valentine’s Day has become more articulated.  People have come to see it as an occasion of sexual encounter.  But this does not mean it is necessarily hedonistic.  There is a Christian side of erotic love.

We believe that the human person has needs and desires which include sexual union.  For many good reasons a couple should make a permanent commitment before consummating their love.  Today’s first reading admonishing perseverance points to this necessity. In marriage sexual union enhances the couple’s unity as it purifies their intentions.  In time the man and woman will not give themselves to one another to satisfy desire.  Their love will become a giving of self completely for the good of the other. It will become like God’s love.

Friday, February 14, 2020

Memorial of Saints Cyril, monk, and Methodius, bishop

(I Kings 11:29-32.12:19; Mark 7:31-37)

Although today, Valentine’s Day, is commonly associated with erotic love, the feast has saintly origins.  There are several versions of the story of the ancient martyr, St. Valentine, and probably for this reason the Church has dropped the feast from its calendar and has reassigned the day to the less primitive Saints Cyril and Methodius.  In Latin countries the day is frequently called Día de Amistad, or Day of Friendship, celebrating the love between friends as much as the love between paramours.  Here we may see a link between the legendary martyr(s) of old and the two official saints of the day.

Cyril and Methodius were brothers who ventured from their native Greece to the Slavic nations of the Ukraine and Moravia in the ninth century.  They had positions in teaching and government before becoming missionaries.  Why did they leave their careers to preach the gospel in foreign lands?  Could it have been anything other than love of Christ?  Sure, missionaries have a sense of adventure, but there is much more to their stories.  They make a new home in a new place among new people because they sense Jesus urging them on.  As any good friend, Jesus inspires, invigorates, and cares for those who leave home and kin for him.

Jesus is our friend as well.  He might be whispering in our ear to become foreign missionaries, but more likely he wants us to preach to those who surround us today.  Of course, he does not want us to harangue anyone, quite the contrary.  He asks us to share his joy, his peace, and his love.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Memorial of Saint Cyril, monk, and Saint Methodius, bishop

(James 1:12-18; Mark 8:14-21)

Many wonder why St. Valentine’s Day has been displaced on the liturgical calendar by the Memorial of Saints Cyril and Methodius. They find it puzzling that the Church would replace a universally popular saint with two of much more limited appeal. The reasons deal with historical veracity and perhaps with a more precise understanding of the love with which St. Valentine is associated.

Although it can be established that St. Valentine died a martyr during the second half of the third century, most of what is said about him is legend. Actually there are fourteen saints with that name from the period, none of whose lives are historically detailed. By comparison the lives of Cyril and Methodius are well chronicled. They were Greek missionaries who facilitated the development of the Church in Ukraine and Moravia six centuries after Valentine.

In the gospel today Jesus’ disciples cannot understand that as long as they have him, they need nothing else. He is the Bread of Life which will sustain us not for just a day but for eternity. Something similar may be said about the love which St. Valentine inspires. Most people reduce the meaning of the term to erotic desire. That is like using a Bible for a doorstop. Love is primarily the giving of self for the good of the other. Here again we have Jesus as the primary example. He showed us how to love by dying on the cross so that we might have access to eternal life. In dying for Christ Valentine exhibited that love but his witness has been undermined. Cyril and Methodius, however, in venturing to faraway places to preach God's love in Christ give more reliable testimony.

Homilette for Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2007

(Mark 8)

More chocolate is sold for Valentine’s Day than for any other day of the year. “Sweets for the sweet,” they say. In the United States Valentine’s Day has a definite romantic flavor, but this is not true all over. In Latin America, February 14 is Día de Amistad, Friendship Day. People celebrate the gift of friendship, which as the rose taught the Little Prince, makes a person special.

Could the gospel today be telling us that faith is a way of seeing people as special? We remember that faith is a new way of seeing. When Jesus puts spittle on the blind man’s eyes, the man begins to see people but only as walking trees. That’s a very imperfect faith as it misses most of the wonder of what it means to be human. When Jesus lays his hands on the man again, he sees perfectly. People, we may surmise, are no longer quiet and rigid like trees. No, they become communicative and lively. They are at least potential friends.

Faith, of course, is primarily a relationship with God. It sees God as one who cares for all His creatures, especially humankind. Our relationship with God then implies a positive regard of others, again especially of humans. As God’s concern, we want to know many and different kinds of people, to help them, and to love them. We want to treat them as special. We want them to be our friends.