One year, when Valentine’s Day fell on a Sunday, the pastor of a small parish had an idea to mark the occasion. As couples came into church, ushers would present each wife with a rose. During Mass, a special intention for couples would be included as part of the Prayer of the Faithful. And, at the end of Mass, the priest would invite all the couples to come up around the altar for a special blessing.
It seemed like a good idea at the time.
But the day after Valentine’s Sunday, the pastor wondered.
It turned out that the flowers and blessing were very painful for one woman whose husband had died just a few months before.
An engaged couple who were to be married that summer felt they should have been included.
At one Mass, some couples took extra flowers and the ushers ran out.
Single parishioners felt excluded and divorced parishioners sat quietly.
And several parishioners were furious that more advanced notice had not been given so they would have made sure to have been at Mass that weekend. One spouse demanded – demanded! – that flowers be available the following weekend for those couples who were not at Mass the previous weekend.
The pastor was crestfallen. What he hoped would have been a moment of celebration and prayer for the married couples in his parish turned out to be a cause for hurt and resentment.
The parish’s simple little Valentine’s Day ritual was not repeated.
Today’s Gospel cautions us to be careful about judging everything and everyone in terms of how it affects me.
Can I allow someone else to be celebrated? Do I find myself jealous over someone else’s success or accomplishments?
Jesus’ sense of generosity, love, and forgiveness strikes us as extravagant; it challenges our sense of what is fair. Jesus tells us to love our enemy, He tells us that we should forgive not 7 times but 70 times 7 times. He feeds the multitudes with a few loaves and fishes.
To trust in God is to appreciate all that God has done for us, to appreciate all that we have received, how many blessings we have from God.
A Christian’s first concern should not be “what do I get out of it”? Our concern. should be, how can I serve, how can I celebrate my fellow men and women?
And if that is our concern, our values; we are assured that “your reward will be great in Heaven”.