And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three and the greatest of these is love. Now I know only in part then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. For now, we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end as for tongues, they will cease as for knowledge, it will come to an end. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. It does not insist on its own way it is not irritable or resentful it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. Love is patient love is kind love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. Love the way Paul understood love in his letter to the Corinthians, Find a way to love others freely and joyously and without manipulations or expectations. So, my Valentine's Day card to all of you, dear readers, is to love beyond flowers and candy and cards. Free will makes love possible and love makes faith possible and faith makes a future for us all possible. Without free will love is impossible because we cannot choose anything. Love is the reason God gave us free will so that we could choose to love God and choose to love each other. Love is the foundation of our lives as ensouled beings made in the image of a loving God. The commandment to love God and love our neighbors is taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount as the two most important teachings of the Bible (Mark 12:28-34). The Golden Rule of loving others as we would like to be loved (Leviticus 19:18) is the bond that unites all the faiths of the world east and west. We are created and loved by God and so we love God in return. The Torah's commandment to love God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your might (Deuteronomy 6:5) is the essence of Judaism's understanding of our obligations to God. The main teaching of the Bible is that our love for each other is a reflection of God's love for each and every one of us. They are all types of love, but the self-emptying element of love unites them all. Philia is the form of love we have for dear friends and Storge is the form of love we have for our family. Agape is the form of love we hold in our souls for God. Even the formulaic giving of flowers and candy as I grew beyond Valentine's cards has not over the years quenched my ardor for a day that despite its cliché goofiness remains a celebration of the highest human emotion and that is love. In the old days at school in Milwaukee, when Valentine's Day cards were exchanged in class, I was able to feel the first stirrings of love and that was a glorious feeling. It is about cards and flowers and, yes, more candy but, of course, it is mostly about love and that is enough for me because love in our world right now is in very short supply. The combined joy of candy and trick or treating around your neighborhood that is suddenly transformed into a place of true communal celebration is enough for me to tolerate the spiritually suspect intrusion of ghouls and zombies. Valentine's Day is much like Halloween in that respect. I know it is a Christian holiday at root but so is Halloween and I love Halloween too. Of all the second-rank holidays that follow the big three of Passover, Easter and Christmas my favorite is Valentine's Day.
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