Daily Gospel Reflection – Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
June 10,2022
Friday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Mt 5:27-32
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.
“It was also said,
Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.
But I say to you,
whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful)
causes her to commit adultery,
and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
*United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord prohibits divorce.
Is there any better description of sex anywhere in the literature of the world than that provocative line, “The two of them become one flesh?” In a Jewish context, flesh carries the sense of the whole person. Hence sexual union is meant to be a union at all levels.
A husband says to his wife, “My life is no longer about me; it’s about you and the children we will have.” And the wife says the same thing to her husband: “My life is not mine anymore; it belongs to you and our children.”
Some might expect Jesus to have a soft or relativized teaching on divorce, but later in Matthew’s Gospel he firmly declares: “What God has joined together, no human being must separate.” The husband and wife, who become one flesh, are brought together, not just by their mutual attraction, but by God. Their union is ingredient in God’s purposes. And this is why it cannot be undone. God doesn’t go back on his word.
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