Friday, 7th Week of the Year May 24, 2024

Father Rick’s Two-Minute Homily for Friday, 7th Week of the Year
May 24, 2024, Mark 10:1-12.
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052424.cfm

Nothing Can Divide Us Married In Christian Faith

Married or not, we must always follow Jesus in laying down what is important to us so that we may selflessly take up what is most important to another person. Over the centuries, married love revealed by God in the Scriptures has degraded from a loving relationship.

When the Lord God, who is love, is no longer the center of our human relationships, people become property that can be disposed of for any reason. Jesus has instilled in the Catholic Church through the Sacrament of Marriage a unity, faithfulness, permanence, and indissolubility that keeps God’s original intention for marriage sacred.

Basically, it’s how He loves us. Jesus states this truth in today’s Gospel: “From the beginning of creation.” It’s how he loves us.
In the Holy Sacrament of Marriage, God instills in the couple making their wedding vows the grace of a relationship with Him and each other that nothing in their lives can dissolve except death. Unfortunately, if one of the partners loses that precious relationship with the Lord, they move from being other-centered.

(God-centered) to self-centered. It is hard for a partner to accept why their spouse no longer bears their heart with them or understands them and, in the end, no longer loves them, even when they try under the most challenging circumstances.

Sacramental married love is a union of a man and woman in Christ Jesus, who never put Himself before anyone. The best advice one can give to an engaged couple or those having difficulties in their marriage is to pray; pray together to lose yourselves for God and each other.

By spending time with the Lord, we become like Him: patient, kind, not quick-tempered. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, St. Paul teaches that we can bear and endure everything.
Gospel Challenge:
You might want to try replacing love with the pronoun “I.” And where this isn’t happening or seems too difficult, ask God’s mercy and your partners, too. Married or not, we must never fear following Jesus in laying down what is important to us so that we may selflessly take up what is most important to another person.

Love One Another!
Fr. Rick Pilger, IC
www.bscchurch.com