[media presentation below]
GospelThink
Friday, August 18
MATTHEW 19:3-12
Marriage is a difficult vocation.
Prayerthoughts
a. The Pharisees were testing him. There are things in my life that “test” me, make me anxious or whatever. How do I work with things that happen that are not expected?
b. Divorce is the topic of the meditation. In our age, some good people are divorced for good reason. Probably, the divorce has been difficult. Perhaps we should say a prayer for all of them.
c. Jesus gives his law on divorce: there is to be none. What is the biggest cause for divorce in our world, and does it apply to me at all in my life?
d. Jesus changed the law of Moses. Jesus’s laws are the important thing in my Christian life. What three laws of Jesus do I consider most important? (This is the task of the meditation.)
e. Matthew’s so called “exception,” “…unless the marriage…” is important since I cannot judge whether some divorce fits Jesus’s law or not. Judging another is something that I must stay away from. Am I?
f. Jesus refers to those who are not married, saying that all are to be considered as people of his Kingdom. Have I accepted everyone, not matter what their sexual preference in my world today or am I judging them in a negative way?
g. My prayerthoughts…
Today, I will carry out letter d.
Some Thoughts on the Liturgy
THE LESSON OF FAITHFULNESS
+ The first reading is once again from an historical book of the Old Testament or Hebrew Scriptures, the Book of Joshua
– and the topic is very clearly the fact that God is faithful
– going through the history of Israel up to that point, Joshua quotes God who reminds the Israelites that what God promised to Abraham was indeed given to him—“a land that you had not tilled and cities that you had not built, to dwell in; you have eaten of vineyards and olive groves which you did not plant”
– in other words, Yahweh God was faithful to the promises
+ The Gospel is the classic statement about the indissolubility of marriage along with the idea of being faithful if we have promised something
– saying that marriage must be considered sacred even if one chooses not to marry
+ We heard yesterday about the difficult directive of Jesus to forgive others no matter what
– here, Jesus says that the granting of divorce can never be considered to be part of his doctrine
– there is a phrase here in Matthew’s Gospel with a possibility of an exception—the phrase “unless the marriage is unlawful”—
– but for the most part, in Jesus’ mind, the permanent commitment of marriage and being faithful to the person one has said “I do” to must be always upheld
+ The media of our day often speak about love and almost always there is the idea of commitment that runs through it
– but, our world does not do well with commitments
– ruled by selfish human natures, people of our world too often make what might be called “temporary permanent commitments”
– of course, such commitments are a contradiction, but they are so much easier than “permanent permanent commitments”
– there are legitimate exceptions in which permanent commitments should be abandoned, but one must wonder whether there should be as many exceptions as there are
+ The subject of our meditation this morning should dwell on the fact that the concept of faithfulness isn’t as strong as it should be
– if we want happiness, and we all do, we have to understand the meaning of a permanent commitment, whether it is the promise to be a friend “forever,” or the promise to remain with someone as wife or husband all the days of one’s life
– if a Christian makes a commitment to someone, that Christian will be faithful to his/her promise—period.
–
MEDIA PRESENTATION
Movie: “The Young Messiah” — beginning session
JESUS THE HEALER
The Gospel
Luke 2:22-34a
When the days were completed for their purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord, … and to offer the sacrifice. … Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, awaiting the consolation of I
Israel, and the holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Messiah of the Lord. He came in the Spirit into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform the custom of the law in regard to him, he took him into his arms and blessed God saying: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace, according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared in sight of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel.” The child’s father and mother were amazed at what was said about him; and Simeon blessed them. |
| The intriguing idea behind the movie “The Young Messiah” is: what was Jesus like when he was seven years old? The movie presents him as a ordinary child with an extraordinary love and care for all. He could heal a bird; he could give a blind man his sight; he could even bring a man back to life. He cared for people who were killed; he did not want birds to be sacrificed, even in the temple. He corrected the rabbi and scribes; he cared very much about God. Most of all, perhaps he wanted people to be good, even evil people like Roman centurions. But he did not know why he had those powers and concerns. It became a searing question in his young mind. One thing was for certain, however: evil could not stand up against this child as the movie portrays, and his compassion for others was able to be a cure for the people who desired it. |
One of the characteristics of the young Jesus in the movie “The Young Messiah” was his care for the animals and people who were hurting for some reason. One can argue that such a care was evident from Jesus’ life from the very beginning. Simeon the holy man looked upon him and said to his mother and father that his eyes had seen “salvation,” that is, he had seen a person who would truly care for the people of the world.
One of the facts of human growth and development is that when we are young, we begin to manifest some characteristics that will become our way of acting when we are older. Arguably, the focal point of Jesus’ ministry was that he cared for people. He wanted to establish a kingdom of harmony in which everyone was important and everyone was destined for eternal life with God. Therefore, it stands to reason that Jesus would first of all care for people.
Since we are followers of the Messiah, one of our roles in life should be one of care and concern for others. People should be able to look on us and see “salvation.” Not in the sense of a redeemer as Jesus was, but in the sense of a person who has understood what our Messiah wishes of us. We are called to be people who recognize that other people live in our world and are just as important as we are. In a matter of speaking, they should see in us the face of healing kindness and love.
People were healed when they saw the face of Jesus. People should be “healed” by our kindness and concern.
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