Love’s Plans and Hopes

Andrea and Laurence have just got engaged; their love will lead to plans for their wedding and hope for the future. Yesterday was Valentine’s Day…

St Valentine married couples who were in love but couldn’t get married in Rome legally. Emperor Claudius II had outlawed weddings because he thought that marriage would be an obstacle to recruiting new soldiers, and would distract existing soldiers.

Emperor Claudius discovered that Valentine was performing weddings. Valentine was imprisoned and eventually executed. Legislation against love and marriage? Love’s plans and hopes leading to imprisonment and death?

‘The course of true love never did run smooth’ is said by Lysander at the beginning of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Lysander loves Hermia and wants to marry her. Hermia’s father has said that she’s going to marry Demetrius. If she doesn’t, she’s going to have to decide whether to face death or be consigned to a nunnery.

The play progresses… Lysander meets Hermia in the woods… Puck enchants Lysander… Lysander sees Helena and instantly falls in love with her… Lysander abandons Hermia…

True love encounters obstacles; it doesn’t run smoothly.

Before his fight with Evander Holyfield in 1996 Mike Tyson was asked if he was worried about his opponent’s plans. He answered, ‘Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.’ Tyson famously lost the fight…

Sadly the course of true love doesn’t run smooth or fit into neat plans; it sometimes gets punched in the mouth… 

Nick Cave, grieving the loss of his mother and the tragic death of his son, says, ‘Hope is optimism with a broken heart’. Though love can encounter pain, obstacles and trials, there still can be optimism and hope.

As St Paul says, ‘Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.’

Nick Cave and Paul reflect my experience: when love is difficult, hope can carry me; when hope is difficult, love can carry me. I hope and pray that Andrea and Laurence discover that too.