Matthew 19:3-12
Today’s
gospel is about marriage and divorce. The Pharisees wanted to test Jesus if He
was against or for the Law about divorce. They do it by citing the teaching of
Moses so that He may declare publicly whether He rejects this teaching or not.
Jesus answers them by giving a citation which is older than theirs. The Lord
takes them away back to the beauty of God’s original plan as presented in
Genesis. And he says that Moses allowed divorce only to control the consequences
of sinfulness and of hardness of heart.
This
was a hard lesson to take then, and it is a hard lesson to accept even now in
our society. My concern is the reaction of the disciples after the Lord told
them that it is not right to divorce and remarry. What was their reaction? They
said, “If that is the case, we will not get married anymore.” They reaction
reflects the fear of risk. They fear to risk into a lifelong commitment. And this
is an aspect of our society today where we try to understand that nothing is permanent
and there is no need of permanent bounds.
The
important message for us form this gospel is that the Lord call us to fidelity;
this is what Jesus gives so much emphasis. And to be faithful requires great
discipline but mostly grace from the Lord. It is God who offers His
unconditional love to all and helps us to be faithful in our commitments. His
love is a gift. There is no perfect decision or perfect option in life if not given
by the Lord. All He asks is to remember Him as a loving God. I think this is
why Jesus goes back to the original plan of God to remind us that faithfulness
and fidelity belongs to God. He is the one who joins; and “What God has joined together,
let no man put separate”.
God
never promised us a life without risk. He never promised us a life without problem.
God never promised us a life of ease and comfort. God only promised us that He
would be with us till the end of time. Let us pray through the intercession of
Stephen of Hungary that we may remain in his love.
No comments:
Post a Comment