Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Binding Marriage

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | 08.12.22 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

MATTHEW 19:3–12

Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches about the sanctity and permanence of marriage.
Now we begin to see why the love of a husband and wife is a sacrament of God’s love.
The Father and the Son—while remaining distinct—give themselves utterly to each other,
and this mutual giving is the Holy Spirit.

So when two people come together in love and form one flesh, they mimic the love between the Father and the Son.
And when their love gives rise to a child, this mimics sacramentally the spiration of the Holy Spirit.
Father, mother, and children are evocative of the divine Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And this is why Jesus speaks so forcefully about marriage,
and why his Church,
at its best, has echoed him up and down the centuries.
It is because marriage is such a sacred sign that the Church has sought so assiduously to protect it.

I know that the Church gets a bad rap for surrounding marriage and sexuality with so many rules.
I realize that libertarians through the ages have fought against the supposed uptight moralism of the Church.
But human beings always surround precious things with laws,
restrictions, and prohibitions.

[MurphsLaw]

+++Some Pharisees approached Jesus,
and tested him, saying,
“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?”
He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the
beginning
the Creator made them male and female 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 flesh?

So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

Therefore, what God has joined together,
man must not separate.”
They said to him, “Then why did Moses command
that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?”
He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts
Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,
but from the beginning it was not so.
I say to you, whoever divorces his wife
(unless the marriage is unlawful)
and marries another commits adultery.”
His disciples said to him,
“If that is the case of a man with his wife,
it is better not to marry.”
He answered, “Not all can accept this word,
but only those to whom that is granted.
Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so;
some, because they were made so by others;
some, because they have renounced marriage
for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.” +++

[ConservativeMind]

Marriage is for life.