August 12. Lectionary # 417

Scripture: Lectionary 417. Joshua 24:1-13. Psalm 136:1-3,16-18.22.24.
Matthew 19:3-12:

In this nineteenth week which is called ordinary time in the liturgical
year, we enter the fifth part of Matthew's Gospel. It will take us through
his journey and ministry in Jerusalem while we continue to listen to his
teachings, his parables, and the third and final prediction of his passion,
death, and resurrection.

It is his teaching on marriage and celibacy that we meditate upon today.
Both are sacred commitments and reflect the life of many of us in the
Church and in our unstable society. The sacrament of marriage is the first
part of Jesus' teaching which he bases on the command of Genesis where God
has made woman and man in his image and likeness and calls those in the
covenant of marriage to be of one mind, one heart, one flesh. This is the
way it was to be according to Genesis and Jesus' reaffirming this to the
religious leaders of his day. As always, Jesus is faithful to his
religious traditions handed on to him through the Torah. He affirms that
husband and wife are to be together for their lifetime. He also takes us
into a realm not too familiar in his culture of the first century, that of
a life of celibacy. It was probably known at Qumran in the Dead Sea Scroll
community and possibly in the Alexandrian community of the Essenes. It
would soon be followed more affirmatively by those who would start the
beginnings of monasticism and vowed life. Jesus says that some persons
actually choose celibacy for the sake of the kingdom of God--the subject of
most of his preaching.

Father Brown, one of the greatest exegetes the United States has ever had
says, "Like marriage without the possiblity of divorce, such celibacy is an
eschatological value (see Isaiah 56:3-5); both impose demands that the
world regards as impossible."

We pray today for those who are deciding upon getting married and for those
who are thinking about a religious or priestly vocation. We pray
especially for those who are pastors and pastoral assistants, campus
ministers, and counsellors who help people in strengthening them in their
God-given vocation to the religious or married state. We remember also
those who are dedicated as single persons to the professional life or to
helping their parents and the elderly. All of those involved with helping
those in the married state, and those who are divorced, those seeking an
annulment to be very sensitive, open, and creative in their caring for
persons. The affirmation needed is a moral responsiblity of the entire
Church but especially those in the helping and social professions. Amen.