The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John 1: 14)

Wednesday 14th February this year marks not only Valentine’s Day, but also Ash Wednesday, two events that are not naturally connected or associated with each other, except this year when they share a date.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, a period of 40 days that is traditionally a time of self-denial, repentance and spiritual discipline as we prepare to greet the Risen Christ on Easter Morning.

Valentine’s Day is thought to have started around 500 AD drawing on stories of a priest named Valentine, who was imprisoned by the Emperor Claudius for his faith, but sent a love letter to the jailer’s daughter just before his death. For his work with persecuted Christians he was subsequently made a saint and two hundred years later the tradition of sending cards to a loved one on St Valentine’s Day began.

Five hundred years earlier, God sent a love letter to the world in the form of His Son, Jesus, ‘the Word made flesh’, who lived among us.

The Bible is full of the language of love, hope and the fulfilment of promises. We learn of a God who invites us to return to Him again and again, even when we have been unfaithful and turned away from His loving kindness. God always has his arms open wide, ready to welcome us into His embrace, arms that opened wide on the cross as His Son Jesus Christ was crucified for all that separated humanity from God.

Valentine, as a Christian festival, captures something of the essence of God’s love, and Ash Wednesday is a call to return to our God who is abounding in love. Not usually celebrated or recognised together, but the words of Christina Rossetti’s poem penned on 14 February 1883 gives an expression of how death and love are entwined together:

A world of change & loss, a world of death,
Of heart & eyes that fail, of labouring breath,
Of pains to bear & painful deeds to do:—
Nevertheless a world of life to come
And love; where you’re at home, while in our home
Your Valentine rejoices having you.

On Ash Wednesday, we gather in Church to be signed with a cross, using ashes from burning last year’s palm crosses, with the words ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.’ Words that are also echoed in a funeral service, ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’. It’s a reminder that, in our humanity, as we stand before God, each one of us is equal in His eyes. Our worldly lives are limited, but Christ is our hope of life and love that far exceeds that which humans can bestow on one another, a life that is eternal, under the gaze of a God who personified love in the person of Jesus.

God loves us unconditionally and waits patiently for His love letter to us to be reciprocated, asking of us simply that we open our hearts to Him, so that he can welcome us home into His heart.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3: 16)

Revd Alison, Rector