a heart surrounded by thorns - 7th week friday 2019

Today the Pharisees asked Jesus: "Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?"  

However, for Jesus, things are better understood when we have seen the bigger picture.  And so instead of simply answering whether divorce is allowed or not, Jesus changed the question into, what is marriage? 

For Jesus marriage is a covenant.  It is a relationship based on the love of a man and a woman.  It is not a contract nga puede naton mahaboy lang kag mapanas.  What God has joined together let no man separate.

Marriage is self-giving love, it comes from on one’s capacity to give oneself totally for the other.  Thus he has to leave behind his mother and father so that he can cling to the wife.  It is a life-long commitment. One cannot learn self-giving love when one gives up every time it hurts.  One cannot learn self-giving love when one leaves at the slightest sign of trouble.  Gugma na sia kag indi contrata.  Thus, Pope Benedict called the struggle to stay and grow in love as “a patient project of a lifetime.”  

Today, first Friday, we celebrate the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the symbol of God’s love.  This symbol of God’s love is a heart surrounded by thorns.  It is a heart wounded by a lance.  This kind of loving is what marriage is – able to sacrifice for the sake of the other, able to carry the pain, willing to bear the wounds of loving and being loved.

This is what marriage is according to Jesus and just as there are priests who fail to live up to their calling, there are also those among us who fail to live up to the demands and rigors of marriage.  But just the same we struggle to live up to the demands of God, helping each other, encouraging one another and treating those who fail with compassion and love.