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From: Joshua 24:1-13

Joshua and the renewal of the Covenant

[1] Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel at Shechem, and summoned the
elders, the heads, the judges and the officers of Israel; and they presented them-
selves before God. [2] Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says the LORD, the
God of Israel. ‘Your fathers lived of old beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father
of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. [3] Then I took your father
Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and
made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac; [4] and to Isaac I gave Jacob and E-
sau. And I gave Esau the hill country of Seir in which to possess, but Jacob and
his children went down to Egypt. [5] And I sent Moses and Aaron, and I plagued
Egypt with what I did in the midst of it; and afterwards I brought you out. [6] Then
I brought your fathers out of Egypt, and you came to the sea; and the Egyptians
pursued your fathers with chariots and horsemen to the Red Sea. [7] And when
they cried to the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and
made the sea come upon them and cover them; and your eyes saw what I did
to Egypt; and you lived in the wilderness a long time.

[8] Then I brought you to the land of the Amorites, who lived on the other side of
the Jordan; they fought with you, and I gave them into your hand, and you took
possession of their land, and I destroyed them before you. [9] Then Balak the
son of Zippor, king of Moab, arose and fought against Israel; and he sent and in-
vited Balaam the son of Beor to curse you, [10] but I would not listen to Balaam;
therefore he blessed you; so I delivered you out of his hand. [11] And you went
the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the men of Jericho fought against you, and
also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites,
the Hivites and the Jebusites; and I gave them into your hand. [12] And I sent
the hornet before you, which drove them out before you, the two kings of the A-
morites; it was not by your sword or by your bow. [13] I gave you a land on which
you had not laboured, and cities which you had not built, and you dwell therein;
you eat the fruit of the vineyards and oliveyards which you did not plant.’

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Commentary:

24:1-28 The book of Joshua is not so much a report about a military campaign
as a vivid lesson in theology about how faithfully God keeps his promises, and
a call to respond to that faithfulness. This is borne out by the fact that the book
ends with a ratification of the Covenant: the nation that has taken possession of
the promised land renews the undertakings given by their fathers at Sinai. This
ceremony takes place at Shechem. After an historical introduction recalling what
God has done for the Israelites (vv. 2-13), Joshua asks the people about their de-
termination to stay faithful to the Lord (vv. 14-24). Once they have all made a com-
mitment to serve the Lord and obey him in everything, the Covenant is ceremon-
ially ratified (vv. 25-27). Elements of this rite are to be found in Hittite rites of vas-
salage of the second millennium BC. So, the Covenant is not only a religious act;
it also has the force of secular law.

The Covenant lies at the basis of Christian morality, because it implies the con-
viction that God directs the course of history and he chooses people who are to
make a specific commitment of fidelity: “There is no doubt that Christian moral
teaching, even in its Biblical roots, acknowledges the specific importance of a
fundamental choice which qualifies the moral life and engages freedom on a ra-
dical level before God. It is a question of the decision of faith, of the obedience
of faith (cf. Rom 16:26) ‘by which man makes a total and free self-commitment
to God, offering “the full submission of intellect and will to God as he reveals”
(Dei Verbum, 5). […] In the Decalogue one finds, as an introduction to the vari-
ous commandments, the basic clause: ‘I am the Lord your God . . . ‘ (Ex 20:2),
which, by impressing upon the numerous and varied particular prescriptions their
primordial meaning, gives the morality of the Covenant its aspect of complete-
ness, unity and profundity. Israel’s fundamental decision, then, is about the fun-
damental commandment (cf. Jos 24:14-25; Ex 19:3-8; Mic 6:8)” (Bl. John Paul
II, Veritatis splendor, 66).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Matthew 19:3-12

Marriage and Virginity

[3] And Pharisees came up to Him (Jesus) and tested Him by asking, “Is it
lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” [4] He answered, “Have you not read
that He who made them from the beginning made them male and female, [5] and
said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his
wife, and the two shall become one’? [6] So they are no longer two but one. What
therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” [7] They said to Him,
“Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her
away?” [8] He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to
divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. [9] And I say to you: who-
ever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adul-
tery; and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”

[10] The disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is
not expedient to marry.” [11] But He said to them, “Not all men can receive this
precept, but only those to whom it is given. [12] For there are eunuchs who have
been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men,
and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the
Kingdom of Heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.”

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Commentary:

4-5. “Marriage and married love are by nature ordered to the procreation and edu-
cation of children. Indeed children are the supreme gift of marriage and greatly
contribute to the good of the parents themselves. God Himself said: ‘It is not good
that man should be alone’ (Genesis 2:18), and ‘from the beginning (He) made them
male and female’ (Matthew 19:4); wishing to associate them in a special way with
his own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words: ‘Be fruitful
and multiply’ (Genesis 1:28). Without intending to underestimate the other ends
of marriage, it must be said that true married life and the whole structure of family
life which results from it is directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiant-
ly with the love of the Creator and Savior, who through them will increase and en-
rich His family from day to day” (Vatican II, “Gaudium Et Spes”, 50).

9. Our Lord’s teaching on the unity and indissolubility of marriage is the main
theme of this passage, apropos of which St. John Chrysostom comments that
marriage is a lifelong union of man and woman (cf. “Hom. on St. Matthew”, 62).
On the meaning of “except for unchastity”, see the note on Matthew 5:31-32).

11. “Not all men can receive this precept”: our Lord is fully aware that the de-
mands involved in His teaching on marriage and His recommendation of celiba-
cy practised out of love of God run counter to human selfishness. That is why
He says that acceptance of this teaching is a gift from God.

12. Our Lord speaks figuratively here, referring to those who, out of love for Him,
renounce marriage and offer their lives completely to Him. Virginity embraced for
the love of God is one of the Church’s most precious charisms (cf. 1 Corinthians
7); the lives of those who practise virginity evoke the state of the blessed in Hea-
ven, who are like the angels (cf. Matthew 22:30). This is why the Church’s Magis-
terium teaches that the state of virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven is
higher than the married state (cf. Council of Trent, “De Sacram. Matr.”, can. 10;
cf. also Ven. Pius XII, “Sacra Virginitas”). On virginity and celibacy the Second
Vatican Council teaches: “The Church’s holiness is also fostered in a special
way by the manifold counsels which the Lord proposes to His disciples in the
Gospel for them to observe. Towering among these counsels is that precious
gift of divine grace given to some by the Father (cf. Matthew 19:11; 1 Corinthians
7:7) to devote themselves to God alone more easily in virginity or celibacy [...].
This perfect continence for love of the Kingdom of Heaven has always been held
in high esteem by the Church as a sign and stimulus of love, and as a singular
source of spiritual fertility in the world” (”Lumen Gentium”, 42; cf. “Perfectae Ca-
ritatis”, 12). And, on celibacy specifically, see Vatican II’s “Presbyterorum Ordi-
nis”, 16 and “Optatam Totius”, 10.

However, both virginity and marriage are necessary for the growth of the Church,
and both imply a specific calling from God: “Celibacy is precisely a gift of the
Spirit. A similar though different gift is contained in the vocation to true and faith-
ful married love, directed towards procreation according to the flesh, in the very
lofty context of the sacrament of Matrimony. It is obvious that this gift is funda-
mental for the building up of the great community of the Church, the people of
God. But if this community wishes to respond fully to its vocation in Jesus Christ,
there will also have to be realized in it, in the correct proportion, that other gift,
the gift of celibacy ‘for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven’” (St. John Paul II,
“Letter To All Priests”, 1979).

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.