A Marriage Made in Heaven

Good News Reflection
Friday of the 19th Week in Ordinary Time
August 17, 2007

Today's Readings:
Joshua 24:1-13
Ps 136:1-3, 16-18, 21-22, 24
Matt 19:3-12
http://www.usccb.org/nab/081707.shtml

A marriage made in heaven

Jesus' tough stand against divorce in today's Gospel reading is hard to
understand. Indeed, Jesus admitted that "not everyone can grasp this
teaching", and then he added an important ingredient to accepting it
(which
means living it out in real circumstances): We have to be GIVEN the
understanding of it.

God gives it to us through his Holy Spirit, who speaks clearly through the
Church's teachings on marriage and through the inner voice of the Spirit
that confirms those teachings. To be open to what he's saying, we have to be
willing to sacrifice our own views whenever they conflict with God's wisdom
as he reveals it in scripture and Church documents.

In his strong stand against divorce, the only exception that Jesus gives is
when the marriage is unlawful, i.e., when it's founded on unGodly beliefs
and behaviors. When a spouse's conduct is abusive and disrespectful from the
beginning, and there was no ability or intention to love as Jesus loves, the
marriage was never valid.

A true marriage unites the husband and wife ‹ physically, emotionally, and
spiritually ‹ as representatives of God's love for the Church. Christian
marriage is supposed to prove to the unbelieving and confused world that
God's love and faithfulness are real.

A marriage with unholy conduct falsely witnesses against God. A marriage
that truly represents God's relationship with his people exhibits committed,
unconditional love, and spouses who love God work hard to stay in love and
serve each other even in the midst of trials and other sources of division.

The entire story in the Bible is the story of marriage, from Adam and Eve's
union and then the sin that damaged their unity with God, to the Israelites'
repeated unfaithfulness and recommitments to Yahweh, to Jesus' birth to
become one with us and his sacrificial death to rescue us, to the successes
and failures and reforms of the Church.

Human marriages go through the same struggles. Only by the grace of God,
which is available to all who want it, can marriages survive the many
temptations of division. This is why having a sacramental marriage is so
very important. When a union is merely a civil, legal contract, or when an
unmarried couple cohabitates, they miss out on the extra graces that are
available through the Sacrament of Matrimony.

God has gifted marriage with a physical desire that binds the couple's
unity: "The two become one flesh." At every Catholic Mass, we the
Bride of
Christ are unified with God as we become "one flesh" with Jesus in
the
Eucharist. This is why receiving the Eucharist during a non-valid marriage
is a terrible insult to him. We should all work hard to become fully united
to our Eternal Spouse and show the world what a loving union really means.



© 2007 by Terry A. Modica