Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10, 2-16
The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
They replied,
“Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her.”
But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and 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,
no human being must separate.”
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”
And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
“Let the children come to me;
do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to
such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it.”
Then he embraced them and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.
The key is to love
1) Hardness of heart. There is nothing more beautiful than loving; This leads a man or a woman to open their life to the person they love. When you love, it touches your most intimate fibers. Love even leads you to get into illogical situations, because the one who loves is capable of doing crazy things for love. But nevertheless, when selfishness infects love it can be terrible, because the obsession and the point of wanting to have it all can lead to suffocation rather than liberation. Whoever truly loves allows their loved one to fulfill and grow, they do not suffocate him or her, they are their staff in life and not policemen who control them. When the heart is taken by selfishness and pride, it casts aside the most beautiful thing, which is love.
2) Giving up. Whoever loves experiences renunciation. Yes, when you love someone you seek to give everything, and this implies a price… the price of personal renouncement. You may give up your whims,and give up your time. But it is not a renunciation that hurts you, it is with joy because you do it for a greater benefit: to build your life with someone. So, if you are in love with someone, I am sure that you are giving up things. What have I given up for her or for him?
3) He embraced them. I am thinking of the Pope’s words when he speaks to us in “Amoris Laetitia”, in chapter eight, about what is known as “irregular issues”, referring to divorced people in a new union. The path that is proposed to us is to embrace each person and accompany the process they live. We should lead them to meet the Lord so that they may be able to discern what is right;walking alongside and showing the closeness ofGod’s embrace. All of us, each one with their struggles, mistakes, their pains and their failures, must go to meet the Lord to continue growing. Today you can be that embrace of God. Use your arm to embrace and not your finger to condemn. You are a missionary and a disciple of Jesus, let’s go out and announce that Heaven is our goal.
God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
