Deuteronomy 24:4-10 / Romans 10:8-13 / Luke 4:1-13
It can be said that everyone has two eyes but no one has the same view.
The fact is that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different.
This can be said of how Valentine’s Day came about, since today is the day and it’s good to know something about it.
The Catholic Church recognises at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred.
One story has it that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he saw marriage as an obstacle and so he outlawed marriage for young men.
Valentine saw the injustice of the decree, and he defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.
When Valentine’s actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.
That’s one account of how Valentine’s Day came about. So it was about two men who had two different views about love and marriage.
One view withstood the test of time and sensibility, while the other faded off into absurdity. It’s not just two different views, but also two opposing and contradictory views.
By and large, it can be said that the world is made up of two sorts of people – those who love and create, and those who hate and destroy.
Putting it simply, we can say that the world is made up of good and bad people.
As in the case of St. Valentine and the emperor Claudius, the bad will try to put down the good, as the good tries to stand for what is right and just.
We see this again in the gospel account of the temptation of Jesus.
In his attempts to tempt Jesus, the devil takes on the ultimate spiritual battle of trying to destroy Jesus and the good that He stood for.
The devil tried to fool Jesus to believe in what isn’t true. But Jesus turned the temptation into a teaching of what is true.
As for us, we are presented with these two opposing views and we have to decide which to believe and follow.
There is a story of a famous writer was in his study room. He picked up his pen and started writing:
“Last year, I had a surgery and my gallbladder was removed. I had to stay stuck to the bed due to this surgery for a long time.
The same year I reached the age of 60 years and had to give up my favourite job.
I had spent 30 years of my life in this publishing company.
The same year I experienced the sorrow of the death of my father.
And in the same year my son failed in his medical exam because he had a car accident. He had to stay in bed at hospital with the cast on for several days. The destruction of car was another loss.
At the end he wrote: Alas! It was such bad year!! ”
When the writer's wife entered the room, she found her husband looking sad and lost in his thoughts. From behind his back she read what was written on the paper. She left the room silently and came back with another paper and placed it on the side of her husband's writing.
When the writer saw this paper, he found this written on it:
“Last year I finally got rid of my gall bladder due to which I had spent years in pain.
I turned 60 with sound health and got retired from my job. Now I can utilize my time to write something better with more focus and peace.
The same year my father, at the age of 95, without depending on anyone or without any critical medical condition went peacefully to meet his Creator.
The same year, God blessed my son with a new life. My car was destroyed but my son stayed alive without getting any disability.
At the end she wrote: This year was an immense blessing of God and it passed well!! ”
The incidents are the same but the viewpoints are different. What point of view we take is certainly our choice.
Certainly, we should fear temptations, but then again, fear can have two meanings.
F-E-A-R can mean Forget-Everything-And-Run. Or it can also mean Face-Everything-And-Rise.
It’s for us to decide and choose.
Jesus faced His temptations and rose with the truth.
May we also face our temptations and realize that we do not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
May we worship the Lord our God and serve Him alone.
May that be our choice and our decision.