“The Lord is slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and forgiving sin and rebellion” (Numbers 14:18)
All too rare that Forgiveness Sunday opening onto the Great Lent falls on the same day when our nation celebrates Valentine’s Day—and so serendipitous to merge those great spiritual virtues into one. Several legends surround St. Valentine, who is as elusive as our beloved St. Nicholas and almost as beloved—at least in his legacy of love. Let’s take the best known tale. It records him as a priest or maybe bishop imprisoned in Rome by Emperor Claudius II, and condemned to execution. His meals were served by the daughter of the jailer, and it seems that he left on his tray for the girl to take away a brief message signed: from your Valentine.
To the extent that myth is true, it speaks to both love and forgiveness. Not the passion we think of as love, certainly not the sentiments of all the valentines sent on this day between lovers, but a natural affection, perhaps gratitude for some kindness or sympathy from an innocent maiden for an old gentleman who would soon be put to death. Assuming the saint had imbibed the attributes of the Lord whom had given His life in service, he was slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love, and forgiving his jailer, the emperor and of course the girl who brought his meals. Is it possible that he could forgive them without loving them? Hardly. Conversely, could he love them as sinners without forgiving them? Again, not so.
What act do we perform in all Orthodox Christian parishes on this day as we complete our Divine Liturgy with the Vespers of Forgiveness? Oddly, we do only once what our loving Lord commanded that we should do before each Divine Liturgy; that is: “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and reconcile yourself to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew 5:23) Is that ever done—anywhere?
At least at the start of the Lenten journey to Pascha, let us make the liturgical admonition come alive: “Let us love one another, that with one accord we may confess Father, Son and Holy Spirit….” Here is how love and forgiveness come together in the bond between the Trinity and each of us, and among one another in the fellowship of faith. If it is not that, then it is mere ritual. Jesus described the logic of love when He said that we are talking nonsense when we claim to love God whom we had not ever seen, when we ignore or even scorn one another when we pray and live together. If all is part of the grand plan of the Trinity, the Father ordering all that takes place on earth, does it not mean that we are not just a random assembly of people who somehow come together to create a parish, but instead elements of a grand design by the Almighty to manifest an experience of unity in the name of Jesus Christ? Further, would it not be part of that diagram to unite us beyond this lifetime and unto ages of ages? Whether or not that is indeed what the Holy Trinity has in mind for us, would it not be in our best interest not only to get to know one another, but to forgive whatever we may have that precludes us from a loving relationship built on the examples of Jesus Christ Himself and all the saints who are called by His Name?