It is wonderful that there is a day dedicated to celebrating love. Love is
something that should be celebrated constantly, but it is good to have a special time for
it as well. Of course, the reason that the day of love is so wonderful is because
its truth comes from the most wonderful truth of all:
If I speak with the tongues of men and even of angels but have no love, my speech is no more than a noisy gong or a clanging bell. If I have the gift of prophecy or if I have all knowledge and understand all secrets or if I have all the faith needed to move mountains but I have no love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have and even give up my body to be burned but have no love, it does me no good. Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope, and patience never fail. Love is eternal. There are prophecies, but they are temporary; there are gifts of speaking in strange tongues, but they will cease; there is knowledge, but it will pass away. For our gifts of knowledge and prophecy are only partial; but when what is complete comes, then what is partial will disappear. ...Meanwhile, these three remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love. It is love, then, that you should strive for.
I Corinthians 13:1-10,13-14:1
Is love important? Research shows that those who strive to
have strong ties with others are happier than those who strive for wealth or beauty or
fame. In fact, there is a negative correlation between striving for wealth or beauty
or fame and being happy, whether because such wrong-headed striving leads to unhappiness,
or whether unhappy people strive for such things. Research cannot tell the cause,
but I believe that a person can achieve happiness if he or she strives for love.
That is why God calls us to it. All types of love are wonderful: the love of friends for each other
and the love between parents and children. But above these loves is the love between
a man and a woman. When God created the world, after He had created all the wonders
of the world, He created the love between man and woman as the crowning achievement of
creation. In that best of loves there can be not only a unity of spirit and of mind
but a unity of body as well. We would be fools to not rejoice in this best of
created gifts from God.
So let us rejoice! Take time to dream of romantic love, as in
this masterpiece by Bougereau entitled "Work Interrupted."
