Accept God’s message for what it really is:
God’s message, and not some human thinking. 1 TH 2:13
EZEKIEL 16:1-15,60,63
My Soul's Beloved,
God speaks eloquently about His love for Israel and His chosen people, and this perfect love finds its fulfillment in the Church, Your Bride. Espoused to You in time this union between the Son of God and the Son of Man will be consummated with the new people of God in the Kingdom of Heaven when, at the end of the age, heaven, and earth will pass away and there will be a new heaven and a new earth and we will be transfigured as we receive a share in the glory of Your resurrection.
Your love O Lord is not a general love given to all Your members but personal. You love me. This beautiful gut-wrenching passage describing the love of God for His faithless lover is me. I deserve death because I have sinned grievously. At any time in my past life Lord, You could have turned Your Face away from me and allowed me to continue to walk in the path that led to eternal death but You did not. You pursued me relentlessly. You did not give up on me. You were patient, loving, kind, tender, compassionate. You forgave me over and over again. You washed me from the filth of my sins and clothed and adorned my soul with rich graces and blessings. You anointed me with the oil of Your mercy. You spread the mantle of Your love over me and covered me. You gave me Your Name. You made me Yours.
But I have been fickle. I have blown hot and cold. I have often been lukewarm in my love for You. I have deliberately and willfully chosen to turn away from Your tender love for me and have chosen not to keep Your commandments. I wounded myself. I broke my heart and I disfigured my soul and You came to me and You continue to come after me. You pick me up. You tend to my wounds. You comfort me. You assure me that I am yours and You will never forsake me. You have bound me to Yourself with bonds that cannot be broken for I am marked and sealed in Your Holy Spirit. You have created me for glory. Keep me faithful my Lord and my God for without Your help I will surely fall by the wayside and be trampled upon and devoured by the enemy.
‘...... but you were quite naked. Then I saw you as I was passing. Your time had come, the time for love. I spread part of my cloak over you and covered your nakedness; I bound myself by oath, I made a covenant with you – it is the Lord who speaks – and you became mine. I bathed you in water, I washed the blood off you, I anointed you with oil. I gave you embroidered dresses, fine leather shoes, a linen headband and a cloak of silk. I loaded you with jewels, gave you bracelets for your wrists and a necklace for your throat. I gave you nose-ring and earrings; I put a beautiful diadem on your head. You were loaded with gold and silver, and dressed in fine linen and embroidered silks. Your food was the finest flour, honey and oil. You grew more and more beautiful; and you rose to be queen. The fame of your beauty spread through the nations, since it was perfect, because I had clothed you with my own splendour – it is the Lord who speaks.
‘“You have become infatuated with your own beauty; you have used your fame to make yourself a prostitute; you have offered your services to all comers. But I will remember the covenant that I made with you when you were a girl, and I will conclude a covenant with you that shall last for ever. And so remember and be covered with shame, and in your confusion be reduced to silence, when I have pardoned you for all that you have done – it is the Lord who speaks.”’
Responsorial Psalm
Responsorial Psalm
ISAIAH 12
My Soul's Beloved,
Your anger has passed, O Lord, and you give me comfort.
Truly, God is my salvation,
I trust, I shall not fear.
For the Lord is my strength, my song,
he became my saviour.
With joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation.
Give thanks to the Lord, give praise to his name!
Make his mighty deeds known to the peoples!
Declare the greatness of his name.
Sing a psalm to the Lord
for he has done glorious deeds;
make them known to all the earth!
People of Zion, sing and shout for joy,
for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.
Your anger has passed, O Lord, and you give me comfort.
MATTHEW 19:3-12
My Soul's Beloved,
There is absolutely no ambiguity here in Your Word, Your teaching when You speak of the union between husband and wife in matrimony. There is no ambiguity in the way God designed man and woman and God's will and command that He created us male and female and when united in the Sacrament of Marriage they are no longer too but one and there is no power on earth that can dissolve this union for it is God Himself who has made the two one body.
The union between husband and wife is a prefigurement of the marriage between You and the Church, Your Body. You are at work in us through the Sacraments You instituted and grace upon grace is poured out on us through the Holy Spirit and when You return, Beloved, You will present Your Bride to the Father without wrinkle or stain.
This is true also of husband and wife here on earth. Each helps the other to work out their salvation with fear and trembling. Each complements the other and each completes what the other lacks and with God's help, they create a little heaven in their home. Sadly, Beloved, there are very few truly holy marriages. The whole world and hell conspire to destroy what God has united and succeeds largely as we can see in our broken, sinful, ugly world.
The fact that whole sections of Christian sects have distorted God's command on marriage and divorce and watered it down until there is no resemblance at all to what God has ordained it is no wonder that the fabric of their Christian lives is being rent and torn asunder by the Enemy.
Thank You, Lord, for Your assurance that the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church You founded.
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and to test him they said, ‘Is it against the Law for a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that the creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man must leave father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’
They said to him, ‘Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?’ ‘It was because you were so unteachable’ he said ‘that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife – I am not speaking of fornication – and marries another, is guilty of adultery.’
The disciples said to him, ‘If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry.’ But he replied, ‘It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. There are eunuchs born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs made so by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’
They said to him, ‘Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of divorce?’ ‘It was because you were so unteachable’ he said ‘that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife – I am not speaking of fornication – and marries another, is guilty of adultery.’
The disciples said to him, ‘If that is how things are between husband and wife, it is not advisable to marry.’ But he replied, ‘It is not everyone who can accept what I have said, but only those to whom it is granted. There are eunuchs born that way from their mother’s womb, there are eunuchs made so by men and there are eunuchs who have made themselves that way for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’
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