Right now it's the Enron collapse which is the subject of congressional hearings into America's biggest ever-financial disaster.

We used to hear those suspected of Communist ties take the Fifth Amendment when questioned. Now it's the captains of Capitalism doing the same.

I have to feel a little respect for the one named Skilling who was willing to sit on the hot seat.

But his "skill" was in not recalling, so that wasn't admirable after all. What a sorry spectacle it has become and who knows when it will ever end.

We used to call the USSR and "evil empire" and it collapsed because it was; yet Iran has also called us "the great Satan," their view of Capitalism riddled with greed.

So where can the pure be found on this earth? I think a spiritual Valentine Day would point the way. Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see GOD." Wouldn't that be marvelous? When asked about the greatest commandment, He quoted Deut.6: 5 Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength." It was Israel's creed repeated continually in synagogues.

And then He added an equal one to it, Lev.19: 16 "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," thus a new ethical monotheism. Both are commands to love, which can't actually be commanded. So the Gospel the Lord Jesus preached and demonstrated empowers those who believe it by grace to gain a divine agape from beyond.

Eros is this world's meaning of love: sexual desire, physical attraction, maybe even romance. And though Eros perpetuates the species, it isn't even mentioned in the New Testament. We see so much in the Old about ancestry and offspring for the sake of a chosen people.

How strange the change in the New Testament where the focus is shifted to agape. Begetting a new race of humanity, born of the Spirit, is the N.T. focus.

Evangelism is the sort of "reproduction" mainly reported out of a love for lost souls. And the first fruit of GOD's Spirit is agape (Gal.5: 22). Then the Bible's most magnificent chapter is all devoted to it (I Cor.13), which originates in heaven.

Man has many loves, including that of money, but agape comes to him and enables his response required in the First and Great Commandment/Golden Rule. Thus the Gospel is about the One whose being is described as agape; not a mere attribute but essence of the Almighty Eternal Everlasting ONE. How often St. John repeats that "God is love." And grace can transform even our Eros, a most basic human appetite, into agape. We have seen it in the lives of Christians so free of self and full of concern for others that they sacrifice marriage or family.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German theologian and martyr under Nazi rule, called Jesus "THE MAN FOR OTHERS." Angelfire here sees such to be AGAPE incarnate, which reproduces itself from out of this fallen race into a new and heavenly humanity. Their money's main value is for helping others (to the glory of Christ) rather than for getting (to gain more and more).

The WTC collapse left us remembering those firemen who gave up their lives in that vain effort to rescue those on floors above. In Enron's collapse we thus far see only those ranked above getting out to save only themselves while employees below are suffering a fate similar to the many firemen. Will Enron blot out the glory of 9/11? God forbid! A spiritual Valentine would be a pure heart offered to the Lord Jesus. St Paul wrote to Titus (1:15) "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; even their mind and conscience is defiled." Lord give us pure hearts to serve Thee.

In the previous column I drew a comparison between 9/11 and the collapse of Enron. It was really supposed to be a contrast, which I now see as analogy. The latter is a modern literary tool that supplements allegory or parable as used in the Bible. The former is extended metaphor and often "said" of O.T. stories that defy rational acceptance. And the later is extended similie, which our Lord used in His teaching. But analogy belongs to the modern world and rightly applies to what I wrote about the falling of the WTC in contrast to the fall of Enron. Going through the rubble at ground zero has taken a long time but the Congressional hearings will probably take still longer on Enron. There won't be many heros to recall either. Thatl's why I feared it would besmirch all the glory of 9/11 that has revitalized American patriotism for a while. And there are liable to be more such failings to be invistigated. Global Crossings is one that has already been mentioned. It was an international Internet business that has also fallen into bankruptcy. We seem to be on the threshold of exposing so much trickery and greed that was using the Operation Enduring Freedom for a cover. If Enron's former CEO Ken Lay looks naive now for not knowing what was happening to Enron, I pray that our young president won't be faced with the same sort of disgrace. GOD give him wisdom and the courage to stand by it.

Concerning my writing about "agape," I want to see it as only appropriate on Valentine's Day if seen as transcendent gender love: Christ for His church or Yahweh for Israel in the Old Testament. When we use gender termonology for divine beings, we are speaking figurtively only. The Creator would not be subject to attributes of His (?) own handiwork i.e. sesuality. Yet for the sake of our limited minds, Scripture uses such language; especially in the Hebrew text where no neuter exists. Thus angels are referred to as masculine, though they are really above that. And we of the modern age have femnized them instead. It is a joke to speak of the "three genders:male, female and clergy." But I think the third gender implies an angelic state that should transcend male or female. However, that may be stretching the humor too much.