If you're in love with someone, or if you've ever loved someone, you probably know that tomorrow is Valentine's Day.  Although in many ways it has become (or, I might say, degenerated into) a Hallmark holiday, it actually has a measure of legitimate historical origin.  Its name comes from St. Valentine, one of many martyrs in the early years of the Church and, as Rome faded into history and the Middle Ages began, it morphed into a day associated with love and romance.  Despite the way that various retailers use Valentine's Day to increase sales, doing their best to entice lovers, particularly men, to spend more disposable income than they would otherwise to please their loved one, it's still a good day.  What harm can come from thinking about love?
     Setting aside thoughts about the infamous Valentine's Day Massacre of American gangster lore, we can say that Valentine's Day should cause all of us to think, again, about how and why we love--and how and why God loves us.  So many of us struggle to be loved, so many of us look for love, as the saying goes, in all the wrong places, and so many wonder, as perhaps singer Linda Ronstadt did decades ago, when we will be loved.  Not one of us does not appreciate, in some way, the love of another human being.
     Tom Vincent was a hermit who lived on the side of California’s San Gabriel Mountains’ 9,000 foot Mt. Baden-Powell for over 50 years.  A recluse, he made every effort to keep people away, sometimes firing his rifle at anyone who dared approach his habitation.  One day, however, Tom became very sick, so much so that he could no longer live on his own.  As it turned out, he was dying.
     Fortunately for Tom, the local postmaster, the only person with whom he ever talked, learned of his illness and took him down the mountain to a hospital.  After a few weeks, Tom died, the postmaster still at his side.  He didn’t die alone.  Tom did not die forgotten.  He was thought of, he was cared for.  Tom saw a window into the world that he had not opened before.  He saw that that the world was not a completely cold place.  He saw that life had not been a travesty.  There was love, there was memory.
     As you remember Valentine's Day, think about Tom.  Think about love.  And think about from where, in a world of impersonal chemical and material origin, love could possibly otherwise come.  Think about the transcending love of God.