[00:00:05] Hello! My name is Sally Moriarty-Flask; welcome to From His Word to Our Hearts, my weekly Bible Study podcast. Together we will explore the readings to be proclaimed at the Catholic Mass on Sunday, August 25, 2024, the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time… and yes, that's a lot of twenties.
[00:00:26] This week's episode is entitled: To Whom Shall We Go? and in these readings, we'll explore how best to follow teachings that can be difficult or challenging.
[00:00:39] And as we journey through the readings this week, let's consider the following: Who will we choose to serve? And how will we choose to serve?
[00:00:52] So let's begin in prayer. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:00:57] Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for the gift of this day, for the gift of another beautiful sunrise. We thank you for the time that you give us on this earth. We thank you for our friends, our family, our community.
[00:01:13] We thank you for all the good gifts that you give us. And we ask you to open our hearts and our minds so that your word, your inspired word in the scriptures, can dwell deeply within our hearts and our minds. That they can teach us to be wise and to follow your teachings even when they are difficult or challenging. And we ask this through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
[00:01:42] Now that we've opened our hearts in prayer, let's listen to what God is trying to tell us in the scriptures this week. Now, our Gospel this week is still from the Gospel of John 6: 60-69.
[00:01:58] “Many of Jesus’ disciples, when they heard it, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, ‘Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before?’”
[00:02:20] “’It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail;’” {I missed the following words in the audio recording: “the words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.”} “’But there are some of you that do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. And he said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.’”
[00:02:44] “After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer walked with him.”
[00:02:50] “Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘Will you also go away?’”
[00:02:55] “Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?’”
[00:03:00] “’You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.’”
[00:03:10] Strong passage, strong reading. So let's put this in perspective. This actually takes place after the close of the Bread of Life Discourse. And this reading, as you heard, really explains the backlash that Jesus faced, even from his disciples, even from his followers. So let's go back to the beginning. “Many of Jesus disciples” - now, what John is talking about here is not just the twelve… not just Jesus’ inner circle of twelve apostles… but all of those disciples, those crowds, that followed him. Right? We heard about that in the past couple of weeks; the crowds that ran from towns all over that followed them wherever they went. These are the disciples that Jesus is talking about here.
[00:04:02] And when they heard what he said, their response was, “This is a hard saying.” This is unacceptable… we can't… how do we process this? How do we internalize this? How do we live with this? This man is telling us to eat his flesh? God's law in the book of Leviticus tells us not to.
[00:04:23] How can we listen to this?
[00:04:26] And Jesus knew what they were thinking. Remember, they murmured, now you should hear echoes again of the Israelites in the desert. They murmured, they grumbled, they complained - assuredly not to his face - but they did grumble and they did complain. And so he said to them, knowing what they were thinking, knowing what they were saying amongst themselves, he said to them, “Do you take offense at this?” In other words, does this shock you? Well, maybe it should. Sometimes we need to be shocked out of our complacency and look at things from a new point of view. Does this shock you? Jesus asks them.
[00:05:08] And then he goes on to say, okay, if you think that's shocking, imagine you are “to see the Son of man” - that's his title; we talked about that before… that's one of the titles he ascribes to himself. “What if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before?” In other words, what if you saw him go back to heaven?
[00:05:27] Think you're shocked now? Oh, no. Hang on a second. Hold onto your bootstraps. Cause you got more to see!
[00:05:34] Through the incarnation, Jesus, in all humility, came down from heaven. He gave up his
non-corporeal form and he came down from heaven and took on the flesh of a helpless infant.
[00:05:54] That helpless infant grew up. He had skinned knees… he had probably played on a rope swing… he probably had a ball that he played with… he may have had a pet dog or there may have been dogs in the compound - the family compound… he shared a lot of the experiences that we all share growing up! He had friends… he probably got mad at his friends… his friends probably got mad at him. All of these things Jesus experienced before his Passion and Death on the Cross, before his Resurrection. So this is the Incarnate Lord that offers himself as the food of eternal life.
[00:06:34] If his followers cannot accept the reality of the incarnation - of him coming down - and we know that by and large they initially did not accept the Resurrection, then they certainly won't be able to accept what Jesus is saying about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
[00:06:58] Jesus goes on to say, “It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail.” So understand he's not saying that his flesh, his flesh specifically is unimportant. What he's saying is that the Holy Spirit, the actions of the Holy Spirit are tantamount. That your flesh and my flesh… the flesh of thousands and millions and billions of humans that have lived from the beginning of time until now and will live from now until the end of time and space… that flesh is of no avail. Nothing we do has any real impact on eternity. That is basically what Jesus is saying. It's only the Spirit that has that impact.
[00:07:45] And remember, where does the Holy Spirit come from? The Father spoke the Word - the Son into existence - the Logos… and the Holy Spirit is that eternal exchange of love between the Father and the Son. We say it in the creed every week. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son… he is that eternal exchange of love.
[00:08:17] So “it is the Spirit that gives life,” the Holy Spirit that proceeds from God the Father and God the Son. Jesus goes on to say, “the words that I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.” Okay, “Spirit and life” - that means that they have the power of the Father behind them… he is doing the Father's will… and life - eternal life. They prepare us for our eventual destiny, our true dwelling place, which is in heaven. Not here on earth… but in heaven. But he says, “there are some of you that do not believe” and remember - the power to believe is rooted in love. Not love of self, but love of others.
[00:09:08] The power to believe is rooted in love because faith is a gift of God… and God is love. Simple, straightforward, hard to accept sometimes. But Jesus is laying it all out here for us. He's giving it to us… he is handing it to us… he is spoon feeding us with this knowledge. “But there are some of you that do not believe,” he says. For, the scriptures continue, “Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe.” In other words, who of those vast crowds of followers that were tagging along… that were looking for the wonder worker… that were looking for the next great miracle… who did not believe - not truly believe, not with deepen roots in faith and love – “and who it was that would betray him.” And that was one individual, of course, that was Judas Iscariot. “And he said, ‘This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.’”
[00:10:19] Jesus is doubling down here again! He is saying he knows that some people will resist that gift of faith given to them by the Father - implanted in their hearts - some people will resist that and be unbelieving. And you know what? We run into that same type of attitude. Not everyone we encounter will want to hear what we have to say.
[00:10:48] Not everyone that we encounter wants us to be kind. Not everyone we encounter wants us to be forgiving or compassionate.
[00:10:58] Sometimes people want to be selfish. Sometimes people want to follow what the culture is telling them - even if what the culture is telling them is wrong, and they know it's wrong, they'll still follow along - because sometimes it's more comfortable being recognized as a member of a certain tribe… or a certain group… or a certain political party… or a certain community… or whatever that may be. Sometimes it's easier to have that identity - and feel protected - than it is to step out on your own and take a chance.
[00:11:36] Think of when Jesus walked on water… he was walking towards the boat in the middle of the Sea of Galilee and Peter says to Jesus: “Lord, is it really you? Bid me come to you on the water?” And he steps out and successfully stays on top of the water until he sees the wind… he feels the wind on his face, and he feels the waves splashing up at him - that's the vagaries of the world… that's our culture… that's everything that we have to deal with on a daily basis. And as soon as he took his eyes off Christ, he started to sink. That same things happens to us! And so it's really, really hard to have the courage to step out of the boat and go towards Christ when he calls us… when he bids us to come to us [him]. And we have to know that up front - we have to know it's hard - but we have to choose to do it anyway.
[00:12:32] “After this many of his disciples” - those great throngs of people - “drew back and no longer walked with him.” His words were just simply too difficult for some of them to accept.
[00:12:47] We're that way sometimes, too. We really are! If we all look inside our hearts and we're honest with ourselves, we realize that we don't always do what Jesus tells us we should do… we don't always look to him first.
[00:13:02] We don't always love the way he loves. It's okay… it's okay to make a mistake… it's okay to trip and fall. Sometimes even Jesus tripped and fell - when he was carrying the cross. So it's okay for us to trip and fall… to lose sight of our ultimate goal… to lose sight of Jesus calling us to himself. It's okay to trip and fall - as long as we get back up and keep striving. Then he looks to the twelve, his inner circle, those men that he called specifically to himself, one by one.
[00:13:36] And he says, “will you also go away?” Can't you… you can just hear the forlorn sound in his voice, can't you? Will you also turn your back on me? Will you also leave me, you who have been with me from the start? Will you go away too?
[00:13:56] But “Simon Peter answered him” - whenever the group speaks, Simon Peter speaks for the group… that points to his primacy… that points to the primacy that we Catholics see continues in the voice of the Pope… “Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?’” In other words, apart from Jesus, nothing is truly worthwhile! Where else would we go? And then Peter goes on to say, “you have the words of eternal life.” Not any other revolutionary out there, not the Pharisees, not the scribes, not the Levitical priesthood, not the Roman Empire, not the… anybody else that is - you know, the Babylonians, the Assyrians, anybody else that conquered Israel over the centuries – “you have the words of eternal life.” “You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed.” They have taken… they have done that work that Jesus gave them to do… they believe. “We have believed, and have come to know” - we are convinced - “that you are the Holy One of God.” And at that time, holiness was an attribute that was only proper to God. And so by saying, “you are the Holy One of God,” Peter is professing - openly and clearly - Jesus’ divinity. It's so important for us to remember in this that we, as humans - and this kind of leads back to that flesh is of no avail…
[00:15:31] …we, as humans, can't make Jesus conform to our human standards! We try! we try to tame him… we try to make him be something he's not. I was at - I was honored enough to be invited to - a Jewish baby naming ceremony a while ago. And one of the Jewish people that I - (Jewish) ladies that's a good friend of mine - that I was sitting and talking with, she said, you know… when her kids were little, she had difficulty explaining, because there's not a lot of Jews in our community, so she had the difficulty explaining to her kids about Jesus Christ. And so she said, well, you know, he was a really, really good rabbi… he was a good man and he was a good rabbi… and he taught people a lot of good things. But, I'll tell you - Bishop Robert Barron's response to that sort of thinking… that if Jesus was just a good teacher, if he was just a good rabbi, then what he said was craziness. He was a lunatic. He should never have been allowed to walk around unescorted. He should have been thrown in prison because he said, I AM the Son of God. So you cannot be both… you can't be both a really good rabbi and a good teacher and then say, you're the Son of God…
[00:16:52] …you cannot have both of those things exist together. Unless you acknowledge the divinity of Christ, he's not a good person… he's not a good teacher…
[00:17:03] He is either the Son of God or he isn't. And it's up to each and every one of us to make that determination in our own hearts… in our own minds… and decide who we will follow, who we will serve, and how we will serve.
[00:17:20] Do we serve our modern culture?
[00:17:24] Do we follow what our modern culture tells us we have to do? Or do we follow the teachings of Jesus Christ?
[00:17:35] Do we step out of the boat and walk towards him when he calls us? Do we lay down our lives for our friends?
[00:17:46] Do we act in a compassionate manner? Do we help other people share their burdens? These are all questions that we all have to answer for ourselves.
[00:17:58] Okay, so that is our Gospel for this week from John.
[00:18:04] Now we're going to go to our First Reading, which is from the Book of Joshua; it's Joshua 24: 1-2a, 15-17, 18.
[00:18:13] “Then Joshua gathered all the tribes of Israel to She’chem, and summoned the elders, the heads, the judges, and the officers of Israel; and they presented themselves before God. And Joshua said to all the people, ‘If you be unwilling to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell;’”
[00:18:42] “’but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.’”
[00:18:46] “Then the people answered, ‘Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods; for it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed; therefore we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.’”
[00:19:14] Let me put the Book of Joshua into perspective a little bit here. The Book of Joshua immediately follows the first five books of the Bible, which are the Torah or the Pentateuch. Deuteronomy serves as sort of a last great speech that Moses gives to his people. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt and TO the promised land, but not INTO the promised land.
[00:19:39] That task, that honor, is given to Joshua as Moses’ successor. Joshua, son of nun… n-u-n. And he is now the leader of the people. And so Joshua is the one that everyone looks to now. So the majority of the Book of Joshua is actually devoted to the occupation of the promised land… how they come into the promised land, how they take care of it, how they split up the different tribes - the twelve tribes - and the allocation of the twelve tribes to the territories for which they've now been assigned. This particular passage comes towards the end of the book, shortly before Joshua's own death.
[00:20:26] Chapter 4 - which is 24, rather - which is the last chapter of the book, recounts in large part the renewal of the covenant. So this is what Joshua is going to leave his people with before he dies… renewal of the covenant. So what does he do? The first thing he does is he gathers “all the tribes of Israel” - all twelve tribes - at She’chem.
[00:20:49] Now, She’chem is one of Israel's central sanctuaries and, geographically, it's about 40 miles north of modern-day Jerusalem - just to kind of give you an idea. And he summoned - who did he summon? All of the authorities of the people, right? “The elders, the heads, the judges, [and] the officers,” all of the authority… “and they presented themselves before God.” In other words, they all showed up at God's sanctuary and said: okay, here we are. And then “Joshua said” - not just to the elders but “to all the people” - and this is a long quote, but here we go… “If you be unwilling to serve the LORD” - now think about that… this is the LORD that brought them out of Egypt… guided them through 40 years in the desert… brought them into the promised land… “If you be unwilling to serve” that “LORD, choose this day whom you will serve.” Kind of… Joshua's kind of throwing down the gauntlet… he's kind of giving them an ultimatum! Okay, if you're not willing… if you want to be deluded with the beliefs of the Amorites, the people in the land of Canaan, where we are currently living… or if you want to go back to the gods of the people, beyond the river - so beyond the Euphrates River (when he says the river he's talking about the Euphrates River)… if you want to go back to those old gods, the gods of Egypt, fine! “But” he says “as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” What follows is a typical formula for covenant renewal in the Old Testament… so first of all, it's a refutation of other gods…
[00:22:32] …then it's a recounting of the one God's saving deeds… and finally is acceptance and affirmation by the people. So let's look at this as we go through it.
[00:22:43] What is the first thing the people decide to answer? “Far be it from us that we should forsake the LORD, to serve other gods.” In other words... nope…. nope… put it that way… you gave us an ultimatum; you threw down the gauntlet. Okay, we're gonna back off from all our complaining and all our grumbling. And - the one true God brought us here. We need to acknowledge that, we need to be honest, and we need to follow him. Okay. And then God's saving deeds. “For it is the LORD our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, and who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went.” Now, think about this - this is water in the desert… this is quail… this is manna… the signs and wonders at Mount Sinai when God gave them the covenant of the law… this is the Ten Commandments that God gave them, that Moses brought down from the top of Mount Sinai. All these things they experienced! They personally experienced them. And then the third part is their acceptance, their affirmation. “Therefore,” they say, “we also will serve the LORD, for he is our God.” That same covenant of the law that was established with the Israelites at the base of Mount Sinai and was written on stone tablets - the Ten Commandments - that covenant marked the beginning of their journey. And now the renewal of the covenant - at the end of their journey, when they are residents of the promised land, they are in the home that God prepared for them - then this covenant is written on the hearts of believers. And that's what we are invited to do as well. To have God's word dwell within us… to have God's word remain in our hearts….
[00:24:43] …that's what we are invited to do.
[00:24:47] The Psalm this week is Psalm 34. Remember I said we would be using that for three weeks? Well, this is the third of the three weeks. And - again the refrain is the same: “O taste and see that the LORD is good.” The verses this time are different - mostly different.
[00:25:03] And here they are: “I will bless the LORD at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the LORD; let the humble hear and be glad. The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous, and his ear toward their cry. The face of the LORD is against evildoers, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.”
[00:25:27] “When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears, and delivers them out of their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and saves the crushed in spirit.”
[00:25:38] “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the LORD delivers him out of all of them. He keeps all his bones; not one of them is broken.”
[00:25:49] And, of course, if - when - you hear not a bone of his was broken, your mind should immediately go to two images: first, the image of the sacrificed lamb for the Passover in Egypt before the Exodus, when Moses says to the people: pick an unblemished lamb, not a bone of whom is broken. And then the Lamb of God, who lays down his life for us on the Cross.
[00:26:20] After Joseph of Arimathea asks for Christ's body, the Roman soldiers report to Pilate that, yes, Jesus is in fact dead because - what was typical for crucifixion? They would allow the crucified prisoners to hang on the cross for several hours in the heat of the sun, but the cause of death was not simply bleeding to death or being baked in the sun… the cause of death was usually suffocation. And if, by the time sunset was approaching, if the crucified person was not yet dead, then the soldiers would break their legs so that they could no longer support themselves in any way, and they would simply fall down and not be able to breathe, and they would die. So those two - not one of them… keep all his bones, not one of them is broken… that should make us think of the original Passover lamb in the Old Testament story AND Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, who gave himself up for our sins.
[00:27:28] And then this week, we find our last passage from Saint Paul's Letter to the Ephesians 5: 21-32.
[00:27:38] “Brothers and sisters: Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
[00:27:44] “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its savior.”
[00:27:57] “As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his body.”
[00:28:49] “’For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’”
[00:28:58] “This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church.”
[00:29:04] This is one of those teachings that I was referring to at the beginning, when - that can be challenging to accept… that can be difficult to hear and even more difficult to live. So let's break this down a little bit. This is, as I said, our 7th out of 7 passages from Ephesians, and certainly, I truly believe, one of the most misquoted and misunderstood passages in all of Paul's writings.
[00:29:37] This section that Paul writes here is actually part of the household code of the time. Remember, this was a patriarchal society… and to be honest, the vast majority of time, women had no rights! Sorry, ladies, it just happens to be the truth - but at the time, women had no rights… they were considered to be property. A man could divorce his wife for any reason whatsoever. He didn't like the casseroles she made last night? Oh, yep. Divorce! I divorce you… I divorce you… I divorce you… you're gone.
[00:30:07] And once a woman was divorced, or if her husband died, she had no support system… she was on the edges of society… she was on her own with no help. There was no welfare… there was no women's care center… there was nothing to help a woman that was divorced or one whose husband had passed away. So the real purpose of this passage - and I think we tend to lose sight of this - is to moderate and soften male behavior. And I know that sounds crazy, but bear with me and let me go through and explain why I say that. Now, first of all, there are only two sentences in this entire passage that are directed at us as wives. He says, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.” It tells us HOW we are to be subject to our husbands - as to the Lord. What does that mean? We are to be subject to our husbands as we are to Christ: not out of fear, not in a self-abasing manner, but out of love and with dignity and respect.
[00:31:15] Those two things we cannot lose sight of that. We each have innate dignity because we are created in the image and likeness of God. And that is what Paul is talking about here. “Be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.”
[00:31:30] “For the husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of his Church.” That's what we as Catholics believe, that Jesus is the head of the Church, and that… we believe that… the Church is his body, the Mystical Body of Christ.
[00:31:45] And we believe that because Jesus himself is our Savior. This is what we are pledging ourselves to as wives - we are pledging ourselves to someone who, number one, we love and who loves us… and we're doing it with respect and with the innate dignity in which we are all created, because we know that our husbands share that dignity…
[00:32:18] …we know that they respect us as much as we respect them…
[00:32:24] …and we know that they would sacrifice themselves for us, just as we would sacrifice ourselves for them. And it's from this passage! Christ himself is our Savior! And then it goes on to say, “As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.” Now, this passage should never, ever be distorted or taken to the extreme. This does not mean that husbands have the right to denigrate… physically or mentally abuse their wives. That is not what this passage is talking about! This passage is talking about mutual respect and it's underlining the dignity of every human person. You know, for years my husband and I served as what are called Pre-Cana couples… in other words, engaged couples would come to us - and they would have several sessions with us - and we would try to instill in them the importance of looking beyond their wedding day to what their lives together would be like for the rest of their lives. And we always tried to remind them that your wedding day is just one day out of the entirety of your lives together… your wedding day is one day.
[00:33:42] Good things happen on your wedding day, absolutely! Bad things happen on your wedding day… on my wedding day, my husband's grandmother fell and broke her nose and bled all over her beautiful dress.
[00:33:54] You know, stuff happens! Everybody has stories about their wedding day. But it's everything that's beyond that, that's what's really important and what we used to tell the couples we worked with is, put the other person first.
[00:34:07] Wives, put your husband first… husbands, put your wife first… because if you're each putting the other person first - every decision you make, every challenge you face, every up, every down, everything that you do together is DONE TOGETHER and it's done to make the best possible marriage… the best possible relationship… the best possible family. And that is what is so crucial here.
[00:34:40] Now, most of the rest of this reading - other than those two sentences - are all directed at husbands. Again, remember, this is intended to moderate and soften male behavior. So what does Paul say? He says, “Husbands, love your wives.” What is the very first thing he addresses to them? Love! Love is the first word - love your wives! And how is that love expressed? “As Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.” And why is it expressed that way? Paul goes on to say, “that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her,” to present to himself the Church - the bride of Christ - to “present […] to himself in splendor […] that she might be holy - that she might share in that divine life, that divinity, that grace that is shared with us by Christ. A wife should never be dominated… a wife should never be belittled… she should never be abused - mentally, physically, or any other way. Every single human being is created in the image of God, and everyone has that innate dignity, and is deserving of respect and love… every single person! So a wife should be cherished and precious. And Paul goes on to double down on this. He says, “Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.” He's not pulling any punches here! “As their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” Pretty straightforward, right? Wives are not property! They're not to be tossed aside… they're not to be bought and sold. They are to be cherished and beloved. “For no man,” Paul says, “ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church.” This is unique to Paul's Letter to Ephesians. Paul's assertion here - that Christ gave himself up specifically for the sake of the Church - that's unique to this letter… only in its specificity. Obviously, Paul talks over and over again that Christ gave himself up, for he was obedient to the will of the Father and went through his Passion and Death on the Cross to save everyone. So this equating - Paul equating - that with the Church is unique to this passage in Ephesians, but it is “because we are all members of his body” - the Mystical Body of Christ. And remember, in his 1st Letter to the Corinthians - in chapter twelve - Paul says, “if one member suffers, all suffer together.” So, yes, “husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church.” They are precious… they are to be cherished… they are to be respected. So as you love and respect yourself - love and respect your wife. And wives, love and respect your husbands. And then he quotes from the Book of Genesis 2, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” In other words, that bond - that joining - is so radical, so unique, that the two become one. And remember what I just read… “If one member suffers, all suffer together.” That's what happens in marriage! If one person gets sick - the other person feels it almost as intimately; if one person has joy - the other person feels joy; if one has sorrow - the other feels sorrow. We are not… married couples are not… in this on our own. We are in this together and always will be. And that is what Paul is stressing here. And he says “this is a great mystery.”
[00:38:41] Again, remember, a mystery is something that we'll never fully understand in our limited human existence. “This is a great mystery.” Even though people get married every day… even though people live out their marital vows every single day… I would argue that most newlyweds have no idea what marriage really is. That's why the Church provides Pre-Cana sponsor couples, so that we can try to get them to focus on what comes beyond the wedding day and get them to understand, hey, there's a whole life ahead of you yet… this is what's important. So it “is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to […] the Church. I want to go back to the very first line again because - I think that first line is so important! “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
[00:39:31] “Be subject to one another.”
[00:39:34] This passage teaches us to pattern our Christian marriages after the model of love that Christ has for his bride, the Church.
[00:39:43] Christ's sacrifice is to serve as a model for husbands and wives alike - for both of us - of how we are to love one another… totally, without hesitation, without question, not counting the cost, but offering an entire gift of self, one to the other. That is what God is talking about! That's what Paul is telling us in this reading.
[00:40:10] If you would like to reach out to me with questions or comments, please send me an email at
[email protected]. Thank you for listening and until next we meet, may God shower his blessings upon you like a soft and gentle rain and may he hold you, safe and secure, in the palm of his hand.
[00:40:29] From His Word to Our Hearts is produced by SFS Audio Solutions, Jimmy Flask: producer, audio engineer, and sole proprietor. The content of this show was assembled by me, Sally Moriarty-Flask. Our music is composed by Jimmy Flask and used with permission of the composer. All rights reserved. Information regarding references used in preparing the exegesis for this podcast is available upon request. Thank you for listening and God bless.
