Recovered In Christ

Tuesday, February 14th, 2012

St. Valentine…
I hope you remember the real story of St. Valentine today…that because he worshipped Jesus openly as his King…back in those times, that was viewed by the emperor as treason…Valentine was beheaded when he refused to renounce Christ as His Only King, not because he was so brave, but because he literally could no longer deny the Love of his life! The story goes, that while waiting for his execution he healed the jailor’s daughter who was a deaf mute…..can you imagine, the kind of love it takes to literally give up your human life because you are that much in Love with Jesus….can you imagine having that much love…that you would heal your jailor’s daughter??

Now, can you imagine the burning Love and agonizing passion it would take for God to give up his life so that we could go free?

That is THE real meaning of Love…you can’t get it, you can only receive it!

I pray that today you experience the burning zeal, yet utter peace and clarity that can only be experienced through the presence of the King, Jesus the Christ.

“Authentic love involves sacrifice. Love involves the total giving of self.”

 Love can even mean “laying down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13)

“There is transcendent meaning in sacrifice and suffering. If endured for the good of others, it is truly sanctifying (1) and salvific (2). To a world that tries to avoid discomfort of any sort, this seems ridiculous. Instead, it is just one of countless examples of how the way of Truth runs counter to human expectations. This, by the way, has always been the case. The first people to hear the story of Jesus were just as struck as we are today at the strangeness of it. Saint Paul wrote 2,000 years ago, “For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians:18)”

“Passion stems from the Latin work pati, meaning “to suffer.” The stem pass comes from the word passive meaning “capable of suffering.” Pass was coined in the early 16th century to denote “the suffering of Christ on the cross.” English also acquired the word through the Old French word passion meaning “strength of feeling.” This has been transferred in our modern times to denote sexual attraction and anger. Webster states the word passion “is a strong feeling, especially of anger, love or desire.” It says that passion “is an emotion, an intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction.” It also says that passion “is the sufferings of Christ between the night of the last supper and His death.” Interestingly enough one version states, “it is also the state or capacity of being acted on by external agents or forces.” What stronger force is there then God? Wasn’t it God who wanted “The passion of Jesus” to be a reality?”