https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/081624.cfm
Man’s Intentions or God’s Intentions
I met a couple recently whose 40-year-old son was utterly dependent upon them from birth. They do everything for him. Also, on the news, I heard of a mother or father running into a burning house to save their children. Acts of heroism are acts of love. However much we may lose, we put others before ourselves. Love is long-suffering and sometimes risky.
Jesus knew this throughout his ministry and on His Cross. Yet, he never backs down like the parents of the forty-year-old son and the mother and father running into the burning house. It’s the love that Jesus gives man and wife in the Sacrament of Marriage. It’s a love God gives to celibates who live for Him alone.
It is a risk and may involve tremendous sacrifice, but people are more important than stuff. Divorce in marriage and any relationship becomes a reality when our stuff becomes more important than our commitments to people.
There is tremendous strength in the intentions we make to each other. Nevertheless, commitments for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, will all demand sacrifice at one point or another.
Jesus did not back down and accept divorce when challenged by his contemporaries. He said humans have no authority to break the vow to love as He did on the cross. We get the strength to love our partners through difficulties because of our relationship with Jesus. We love them with His divine strength in us.
You may have experienced the trauma of divorce. Go to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament in the Tabernacle of a Catholic Church, and let him hold your heart with all its pain. Or you may be struggling now in a marriage relationship. Go to Jesus in the Sacraments of the Church.
Rekindle your love for Him, making Him more important than anything. Your partner will soon become more important to you than anything else that could divide you. This is Jesus’ love for us, and He expects us to have it in our vows to each other.
Gospel Challenge:
Make commitments that last, and keep them with the Lord’s strength when you make them.
Peace everyone.
Love Your Neighbor!
Fr. Rick Pilger, IC
