Mt 19:3-12
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said,
For this reason a man shall leave his father and motherand be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate.” They said to him, “Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?” He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.” His disciples said to him, “If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”
He answered, “Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom that is granted. Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”
I have been kicking around several thoughts about today’s gospel.
Marilyn and I will be celebrating our 35th anniversary this October. This will sound cliché, but it seems like yesterday, and neither of us has ever even entertained the thought of being with someone else. I’m one blessed individual. Thank You, God.
That said, the Jews in Jesus’ time must have had one heck of a time with their wives—just because Jesus tells them that divorce is wrong, they think they would be better off not getting married. Oh, wait! That’s happening in today’s world, too!
Jesus gives 3 reasons (probably not an all-inclusive list) why some are incapable of marriage:
“Because they were born so.” Some studies today show that there is a gene in many people that messes with their brains and gives them a tendency to homosexuality. I’m not sure I believe this, but even if it is true then Jesus is telling them right here in the gospel that they should not marry.
“They were made so by others”. I assume these are the spouses of those who are the victims of their partner’s infidelity. A civil divorce ensues, but they are still married in God’s eyes.
“Because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven”. This, to me, is an obvious reference to the priesthood and/or religious life.
Seems pretty clear to me. Marriage is not to be taken lightly. It is not an “event”. It is a vocation.
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The following is a reprint of the Saint of the Day at Americancatholic.org
August 14
St. Maximilian Mary Kolbe (1894-1941)
“I don’t know what’s going to become of you!” How many parents have said that? Maximilian Mary Kolbe’s reaction was, “I prayed very hard to Our Lady to tell me what would happen to me. She appeared, holding in her hands two crowns, one white, one red. She asked if I would like to have them—one was for purity, the other for martyrdom. I said, ‘I choose both.’ She smiled and disappeared.” After that he was not the same.
He entered the minor seminary of the Conventual Franciscans in Lvív (then Poland, now Ukraine), near his birthplace, and at 16 became a novice. Though he later achieved doctorates in philosophy and theology, he was deeply interested in science, even drawing plans for rocket ships.
Ordained at 24, he saw religious indifference as the deadliest poison of the day. His mission was to combat it. He had already founded the Militia of the Immaculata, whose aim was to fight evil with the witness of the good life, prayer, work and suffering. He dreamed of and then founded Knight of the Immaculata,, a religious magazine under Mary’s protection to preach the Good News to all nations. For the work of publication he established a “City of the Immaculata”—Niepokalanow—which housed 700 of his Franciscan brothers. He later founded one in Nagasaki, Japan. Both the Militia and the magazine ultimately reached the one-million mark in members and subscribers. His love of God was daily filtered through devotion to Mary.
In 1939 the Nazi panzers overran Poland with deadly speed. Niepokalanow was severely bombed. Kolbe and his friars were arrested, then released in less than three months, on the feast of the Immaculate Conception.
In 1941 he was arrested again. The Nazis’ purpose was to liquidate the select ones, the leaders. The end came quickly, in Auschwitz three months later, after terrible beatings and humiliations.
A prisoner had escaped. The commandant announced that 10 men would die. He relished walking along the ranks. “This one. That one.” As they were being marched away to the starvation bunkers, Number 16670 dared to step from the line. “I would like to take that man’s place. He has a wife and children.” “Who are you?” “A priest.” No name, no mention of fame. Silence. The commandant, dumbfounded, perhaps with a fleeting thought of history, kicked Sergeant Francis Gajowniczek out of line and ordered Father Kolbe to go with the nine. In the “block of death” they were ordered to strip naked, and their slow starvation began in darkness. But there was no screaming—the prisoners sang. By the eve of the Assumption four were left alive. The jailer came to finish Kolbe off as he sat in a corner praying. He lifted his fleshless arm to receive the bite of the hypodermic needle. It was filled with carbolic acid. They burned his body with all the others. He was beatified in 1971 and canonized in 1982.
Comment:
Father Kolbe’s death was not a sudden, last-minute act of heroism. His whole life had been a preparation. His holiness was a limitless, passionate desire to convert the whole world to God. And his beloved Immaculata was his inspiration. He is the Patron Saint of Addicts or Drug addiction.
Please say a prayer to Father Kolbe today asking him to present those you know who are/were suffering from addiction to Our Lord for His Mercy.
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