A Reflection on Valentines Day

"After I have known itLove works so in meThat whether things go well or badlyLove turns them to one sweetnessTransforming the soul in itself.And so in its delighting flameWhich I am feeling within me,Swiftly, with nothing spared,I am wholly being consumed"- St. John of the Cross
Over the past couple of years, I’ve had a developing relationship with St. John of the Cross. In reading his poems and coming to an understanding of his spirituality, I have realized more and more that I so desire to relate to God the way he does.
In our world that is so charged with emotion, sometimes it is tempting to want to swing the pendulum in the other direction. As catechists, youth ministers, and leaders in our faith, we often emphasize reason and the intellectual side of the faith in order to combat the world’s “touchy feely” sentiments that are so enticing. St. John of the Cross certainly wrote about the dangers of letting your emotions run wild, and that when your faith was hanging on by a thread, it would be the intellect and the will that would keep you faithful.
Re-read that poem at the beginning….
(No, really… Go back up and re-read it. I’ll wait.)
This poem is a reflection of the way that God was working through St. John’s affectivity, his “feels”. Yes, we need to have an intellectual understanding of the faith and we need our will to rise above emotions when they threaten to damage our faith. But, we need to be open to affectivity and feeling in our relationship with God. God gave us emotions, and intends us to use them in order for us to experience the good.
Philosopher and theologian Dietrich von Hildebrand writes in his book “The Heart”, that in experiencing affectivity, we need to look at the reason behind why we are feeling emotion in order to experience it to the fullest extent. He writes, “The truly affective man is preoccupied with the good which is the source and basis of his affective experience. In loving he looks at the beloved; in happiness he directs his thoughts to the reason for his being happy; in his enthusiasm, he focuses on the value of the good to which the enthusiasm is directed.” When you have joy, direct that joy to God, the source of joy. When you are anxious, call upon Jesus, who promised us that we would have nothing to be anxious about. When you feel alone and separated from God, seek the Holy Spirit, who we know dwells within us.
One fear that many people have expressed to me is this: Someone might have a “feely” religious experience and portray emotion towards God, but that their faith will go out the window when the emotions are gone and life hits them like a ton of bricks. But John of the Cross writes, “that whether things go well or badly”, he can feel himself being consumed by God’s living flame of love. St. John of the Cross allowed himself to be transformed and changed by Love, and felt the very real presence of God scorching away the parts of him that did not yet belong to God.
Today, on Valentines’ Day, I invite you all to turn your eyes to Jesus. Ask God to let you feel Him. God wants to change and transform us, and He wants us to give Him our WHOLE selves, our affectivity included, to do with what He will.