19th Week, Friday, August 18
Joshua 24:1-13 / Matthew 19:3-12
God looks after his people; "I saved you. "
There's a humorous episode in the movie The Blues Brothers. The younger brother lives in a one-room flat that practically sits on top a Chicago El track. When the older brother comes to live with him, the first question he asks is, "How often do the trains go by?" The younger brother says, "So often that you never notice them." When something happens very frequently, we tend not to notice it.
Take today's reading, for example. If we took a red pencil and circled God's words like "l gave you" or "I saved you," we would count 15 circles. The point is that God does so much for Israel that the people tend not to notice it. The same is true of God's dealings with us.
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How much do we take for granted everything that God gives us or does for us? " 'Thank you' is the coin that pays a debt by acknowledging it." Author unknown
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In today’s reading from Joshua, the Hebrews are reminded of all that Yahweh had done for them, from the time of Abraham to the present. The demands that God makes of us in the matter of marriage also spring from his love and concern. There is no denying the fact that divorce in today’s culture is a great scourge, a veritable destroyer of family values. We are wrong in seeing the church’s teaching on marriage as too narrow. This is a teaching that comes from Christ himself.
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Joshua’s address to the people inculcates two points: first, God is the God of the history of his people and the people are what they are and where they are by the grace of a God who took pity on them and loved them; second, the promised land they now live in is God-given and belongs to God. Cannot the same be said of us, God’s people today? Are not the land we live in and the earth we “possess” a trust of God? Is even the Church not something we do not possess, but only provisional for a people on the march in hope to their true promised land?
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Jesus’ teaching on divorce goes back to Genesis itself and shows little room for exceptions. Moses allowed divorce and remarriage under certain circumstances, but Jesus rescinds the Mosaic teaching.
In New Testament teaching, marriage is definitive and its dissolution rescinded. Matthew does allow of one exception over that of the other Synoptics. Divorce was permitted in the case of pomeia (Geek for “lewd conduct”), but we are left to conjecture as to what exactly is meant, perhaps some form of illicit union. The basic teaching is clear. Jesus wishes to restore marriage to its status as a lifelong commitment.
As to the disciples’ comment that, if such be the case, it would be better not to marry, Jesus responds that celibacy is indeed a commendable state when undertaken in the interests of the kingdom of God.
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Fairy-tale marriages usually end with "and they lived happily ever after". Of course we hope and pray that all marriages will be like that, and not just those fairy-tale marriages. But it is not just with marriages, but in whatever state in life, whether single, or widowed, or religious or priesthood, we want to live happily ever after.
In the 1st reading, Joshua gathered all the tribes together with the elders, leaders, judges and scribes before the Lord. They had already crossed into the Promised Land and they have overcome their enemies and were beginning to settle down. And that's when Joshua reminded them that it was not the work of their sword or their bow. Moreover, the Lord gave them a land where they had not toiled, they lived in towns they never built, they ate from vineyard and olive groves they never planted.
In short, God had entered into a covenant with them and blessed them. Where once they were a people wondering in the desert, now they have a land of their own. Once, they were eating only manna and quails. Now, they are in land flowing with milk and honey. So they would live happily ever after. They should. What more could they ask for? But when we read the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, we know what happened when they were settled down. They were unfaithful to God, they broke the covenant, turned to idolatry, and did all sorts of things that displeased God. They did not live happily ever after. and it was all their doing.
In the gospel, Jesus gave a teaching about marriage in response to a question about divorce. He reiterated that from the beginning God blessed marriage and married couples can live happily ever after. But it is not just with marriage. In every vocation and in every state of life, we are also called to a life of happiness. But this happiness can only be achieved when the building of God's kingdom is the objective and purpose in the vocation and state of life that we are in. Then with God's blessings, we will live happily ever after.
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God reveals some qualities of his own love in the love of husband and wife. It is a love that reveals, in which a person discloses himself to another person as intimately as possible. It is a love that accepts the other person as he or she is and is willing to share everything together. It is a love that sacrifices all self-interests for the partner. It is a faithful love. It is also a love that is creative, that brings out the best in the other person. Is this not an image of God’s love and, conversely, is God’s Trinitarian love and his love for us not the model of all human love?
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Prayer
God, your name is love; everyone who loves knows you and anyone who fails to love can never have known you. Keep us from separating what you have united: husbands and wives, parents and their children, your Son and his Church, friends in their joys and sorrows. Let all live in your creative, lasting love, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
