Reflections on Scripture | Friday of the Nineteenth Week in Ordinary Time

Join Msgr. Don Fischer as he reads and delivers a short reflection on today’s gospel, followed by 3 1/2 minutes of contemplative music and a closing prayer. Msgr. Don hopes that today’s reflection on the gospel will empower you to carry the Word in your heart throughout the day.

Choose either the video or audio below.

Gospel
Matthew 19:3-12

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."

Reflection

The fidelity that marriage requires, the law of marriage is not that you cannot leave it, that you're bound to it no matter what. No, what Jesus is opening up is a beautiful image of something that his father said in the Old Testament.

I want to marry you. I want to be a part of your life. I want to enter into you. Which eventually, one day I will through my son. And in that intimacy, we will grow together. That's the model of marriage. The law is that you're there to want to be a part of something bigger than both of you.

You want to be a part of something that brings life to each of you. To be there for each other in good times and bad are important. So that's what Jesus is trying to open their minds to. It's not simply that you're bound to it no matter what. You are rather bound to what it celebrates the intimacy of people growing together, changing each other through the spirit, living in each of them.

Closing Prayer

Father, it's difficult for us to really grow and change without pain and difficulty. Bless us with a heart that is committed to a work no matter what it is, so that we can experience what you have planned for us in that experience. And we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Kyle Cross