Happy Day
At first thought, it seems like an oxymoron--you know, two words that seem to contradict each other, like "working vacation" or "jumbo shrimp," or even "wisely foolish," which is an exact translation of the original Greek word, oxymoron. Or, like today, "Ash Wednesday/Valentine's Day."
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, when liturgical Christians throughout the world, during the six weeks before Easter, reflect on their sinfulness and their need for a Savior. Many Christians will attend a special service, where the pastor or priest will dip his hand in ashes (often made when last year's Palm Sunday palms are burned), then make the sign of the cross on each person's forehead. This symbolizes our need for our Savior, who died on the cross for us. It also reminds us of our own mortality, as indicated in Genesis 3:19: “For dust you are and to dust you shall return.”
In Old Testament times, people would express their repentance by wearing sackcloth and sitting in a pile of ashes, while fasting and crying out to God for deliverance. Most people don't go to those extremes today, but Ash Wednesday can be a somber time for Christians who may choose to give up something for Lent--a type of fasting--and turn their thoughts to Jesus' suffering and death on our behalf. It can be a pretty solemn day, which is why it may not seem to fit with Valentine's Day, which happens to fall on the same date this year.
Valentine's Day is all about love. It's a time when people send cards or flowers or chocolate to those they love the most. Couples may enjoy a special, decadent dinner together. Children exchange paper valentines and candy with each other at their school parties, and enjoy heavily frosted cupcakes and heart-shaped cookies and red punch. It really seems like a day that is the total opposite of Ash Wednesday.
Valentine's Day actually commemorates a man, deemed a saint by the early Catholic Church, who performed Christian marriage ceremonies for Roman soldiers and the women they loved. He did this in defiance of the Roman government, which prohibited its soldiers from marrying. This man, whose name was Valentine, was martyred for his actions. And so, in his honor, Valentine's Day has become a day to celebrate love.
Which, if you think about it, isn't much different from Ash Wednesday, a day when Christians reflect on Jesus' love for us, and our need for him, who loved us so much that he chose to die in our place. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:13
Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, when liturgical Christians throughout the world, during the six weeks before Easter, reflect on their sinfulness and their need for a Savior. Many Christians will attend a special service, where the pastor or priest will dip his hand in ashes (often made when last year's Palm Sunday palms are burned), then make the sign of the cross on each person's forehead. This symbolizes our need for our Savior, who died on the cross for us. It also reminds us of our own mortality, as indicated in Genesis 3:19: “For dust you are and to dust you shall return.”
In Old Testament times, people would express their repentance by wearing sackcloth and sitting in a pile of ashes, while fasting and crying out to God for deliverance. Most people don't go to those extremes today, but Ash Wednesday can be a somber time for Christians who may choose to give up something for Lent--a type of fasting--and turn their thoughts to Jesus' suffering and death on our behalf. It can be a pretty solemn day, which is why it may not seem to fit with Valentine's Day, which happens to fall on the same date this year.
Valentine's Day is all about love. It's a time when people send cards or flowers or chocolate to those they love the most. Couples may enjoy a special, decadent dinner together. Children exchange paper valentines and candy with each other at their school parties, and enjoy heavily frosted cupcakes and heart-shaped cookies and red punch. It really seems like a day that is the total opposite of Ash Wednesday.
Valentine's Day actually commemorates a man, deemed a saint by the early Catholic Church, who performed Christian marriage ceremonies for Roman soldiers and the women they loved. He did this in defiance of the Roman government, which prohibited its soldiers from marrying. This man, whose name was Valentine, was martyred for his actions. And so, in his honor, Valentine's Day has become a day to celebrate love.
Which, if you think about it, isn't much different from Ash Wednesday, a day when Christians reflect on Jesus' love for us, and our need for him, who loved us so much that he chose to die in our place. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:13
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