Friday of 19th Week, Year II: reflection
Reading: Mt 19:3-12
In the light of the seemingly endless cases
violence in marriages, breakups divorce and other marital issues that have
become almost normal in the society, all married people are invited to take
their minds back to the origin of marriage in order to discover the original
intention of the one who instituted it as a union between a man and a woman.
When a question about marriage was posed to
Jesus in today’s gospel, He didn’t answer it according to the custom of his
land or to the law of the state, rather, he drew the attention of the
questioners to how the union was when it was instituted by God and how it
should be according to the will of God.
Jesus is, therefore, addressing to married
people and those intending to enter the marital state to remind them that
marriage was instituted by God as a union of love between a man and a woman, and
should only be governed by love, which is both the intention and the identity
of the one who instituted it. Marriage should not be governed by the dictates
of the law but by love, since it is a sacred union and a vocation, it is not a
mere secular union. Anytime people in a marital union relationship start
evaluating their actions according to what their culture or the secular state
says, that union has lost its test and needs rebooting.
It is true that the difficulties and challenges
of living together as husband and wife are enormous, but when couples allow
love to lead, their imperfections will not lead to physical and emotional attacks,
breakups and divorce, but will instead challenge them to help each other to become
better. When love leads, cases of betrayal will vanish, forgiveness will easily
be given, tolerance, kindness, and other virtues acts will not be asked for,
they will rather flow like a stream.
Most times, marital problems stem from the
expectation of perfection from partners. But then, the fact that God created us
imperfect should help people in marital unions to understand that no human can
be perfect, and that whoever expects perfection from imperfect beings would be
perfectly disappointed.
Let us, therefore, ask God to heal broken
marriage and bless all marriages with abundant love
Fr Isaac C. Chima
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