Lent and Love

I do not know how often Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Holy time of the Lenten journey, and Valentine’s Day, a secular celebration of unconditional love, fall on the same day.
This is the only time in my memory that this has occurred, although I am sure it is not the first.
But perhaps we should contemplate the meaning that one can find in this.
Why, in this particular year, when there is so much anger, so much fear, so much hatred, these days are combined into one?
Is it chance?
Perhaps.
But even if it is chance, it is something that has occurred.
Lent…a time in the Christian world of introspection, of self-examination, of quiet reflection. A time when we prepare in our own 40 day journey, remembering where it leads to.
Lent, a time where we begin to understand the sacrifices that have been made, and what they have opened the world to.
And as we do we begin to understand that it is love, given for no reason, given freely without constraint or restraint, that truly is the lesson of the journey.
In this time of such turmoil, such unrest, such loss of meaning…
perhaps we should step back, look through the broken glass, and remember, that by intertwining love into the lessons of the lenten season, we can begin to heal…to heal the anger, to heal the unrest, to heal the hatred.
To heal ourselves.