Gospel February 25

THE ORIGINAL PLAN
Today’s Gospel makes us face a burning issue: divorce. When divorce strikes, the tragedy is worse than a raging fire: entire households are ruined.
When God created man, what He had in mind and heart was not a single individual named Adam. Adam is not really a proper name of a person. It came from the Hebrew word adamah, meaning “from the earth.” Thus, it is more correct to say that Adam tells us how the first man was created: from the dust of the earth. What God had in mind and heart when He created the first man was humanity. Adam embodies the entire humanity. Thus, God gave man a particular mate: woman. Isha is the Hebrew word for woman, while man is ish. Isha came from ish. Later on, isha was called Eve which, in Hebrew, eva, literally means “mother of all the living.” In marriage, the two become one body. Marriage alone captures the original completion of the entire man in one body. This original vision of uniting and completing was what Jesus had in mind in the Gospel today.
When some Pharisees asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He did not ridicule the Law of Moses but explained that it was a compromise for human sinfulness. Just as a person’s body cannot be divided without killing the same person, so is the permanence of matrimonial bond. What God unites in marriage, man cannot and should not separate through divorce. Marriage is a lifetime covenant. Jesus wanted to protect women from becoming disposable possessions of men. The issue is not only about religion but very much about justice and human dignity, too.
The sacrament of matrimony is the marriage between three, not two, individuals: the man, the woman, and Christ Jesus who, in the midst of threats against family life, keeps on reminding and helping husband and wife to cling to God alone who, in the first place, created and made them one. Fr. Bobby Titco

Reflection Question:
Is my view on marriage truly according to the teachings of the Catholic Church where I belong?

O God, author and origin of love, keep all spouses faithful to one another. Let generosity and respect reign in their marital love and may they serve as the best examples for their children on Christian discipleship. Amen.

St. Ananias II, pray for us.