From the Ark to the Arc

What can a rainbow teach us about Lent?

The calendar has an unusual collision this year. Today is Valentine’s Day, a holiday devoted to chocolate kisses, red roses and candlelight dinners. Restaurants will fill with couples lingering over champagne and tiramisu. Florists will do brisk business. Candy aisles will overflow with heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, oversized teddy bears and greeting cards promising undying devotion. Valentine’s Day has always been a day of saying yes — yes to romance, yes to indulgence, yes to one more piece of chocolate because, after all, love deserves dessert.

But today is also the first Sunday of Lent. The church is telling us to say no, no, no to chocolate, coffee, social media, bad habits and more. In other words, to deny ourselves all the things that make us happy, or so we think.

So, this year, Valentine’s Day arrives wearing ashes! The same Sunday that celebrates flowers and affection also marks the beginning of a season traditionally associated with fasting,...