Seeing With Our Hearts

             A blessed day of the hearts to you O God our loving Father!

             Everybody is greeting happy Valentine’s in honor of your saint who found ways of bringing together in holy matrimony lovers forbidden by so many circumstances.  On the other hand, our liturgy reminds us on this day the holiness of two brothers, St. Cyril and St. Methodius who preached the gospel among the Slavs.

             All three saints showed what true love is, a love that is rooted in you expressed in their love for others.  This is the love that your Son Jesus Christ had concretely showed us, to make us experience anew that we are all one, brothers and sisters in you our Father despite our different colors and beliefs.

             On this day of hearts, remind us O Lord to always see with our hearts so we can be filled with awe and joy in seeing one another like the first man, saying “This one at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen.2:23).  Give us also the courage of that Syrophoenician woman who came to beg Jesus to heal her daughter possessed by the devil by admitting her being a foreigner and different in race yet the same in stature as a child of God (Mk.7:28).

              Like the first man and the Syrophoenician woman who saw with their hearts the other persons and Jesus, then we can destroy the walls that separate us from one another and build bridges of love that bring us together in kindness and respect.

                May we always look with our hearts, O Lord Jesus, because it is only with the heart that we can truly see.  Amen.  Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II, Parokya ng San Juan Apostol at Ebanghelista, Gov. F. Halili Ave., Bagbaguin, Sta. Maria, Bulacan.