REGIS: Valentine’s Day 2021 - A heart for a heart
February 9, 2021
It’s Valentine’s Day, and I cannot help but think about the one who has stolen my heart many years ago.
Since a very young age, I always had a crush on some guy or another, and I would daydream for hours about that cute, handsome, intelligent and “perfect” guy. Growing a little older, I seriously dated a few young men and almost got married to one of them, but my heart was not fully satisfied.
And then it happened: when I was 19, I really did meet the perfect guy, and I knew that he was ‘the one,’ but I hesitated at first to make the commitment of spending the rest of my life with him. But soon enough, he conquered my heart to its very depths, and I could not resist him: Jesus!
He fulfilled my heart in a way no one else could have done.
Once I heard Chiara Lubich, who founded the Focolare movement, talking about the heart of Jesus as a divine and also human heart that warms up our hearts with the fire of love.
She marveled with us at the thought that that heart is still beating in heaven! She invited us to detach our hearts from everything else that is not Him in order to feel the warmth of His heart in our lives. I often tell Him: Jesus, I give you my heart; please give me Yours so that on this earth, I will be able to love others as You have loved.
Some years ago, while in college, someone asked me out on Valentine’s Day, and I explained to him that I am in a serious relationship — with the perfect guy. He laughed and took some time to understand it.
Sometimes I am asked if I miss being with someone or if I feel sad not to have children. Someone asked me if I miss being kissed or exchanging affections. My answer is that I am a woman with a heart that still beats. It is natural to have those feelings.
But God has called me to a life that goes beyond the “natural.”
The more I try to detach myself from those feelings and live in the present moment, loving God and my neighbors, the more I feel union with Him.
That union with Him is priceless, and it fills every fiber of my being. I am filled with joy and am not lacking anything. †
Joelma Regis, a consecrated woman in the Focolare Movement, is an associate director with the Office of Vocations.