Friday of the Nineteenth Week of Ordinary Time

Lectio

    Matthew 19:3–12

Meditatio

“Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female.…”

    In the film Spiderman, superhero Peter Parker falls in love with his friend Mary Jane. In an emotionally charged scene, he tells her that despite his love, he must follow his special calling. Then he walks away, leaving Mary Jane in tears. In some way, Parker’s choice reflects an understanding of marriage and celibacy, the subject of today’s Gospel. But Jesus brings us to a deeper level. When the Pharisees question him about divorce, he goes back to the beginning, to Genesis, to the primeval garden. He tells them that from the beginning, man and woman were meant to be joined in the “one flesh” union of marriage. Divorce was not part of that picture, and Jesus’ statement against divorce shocks the apostles. If that’s the case, they object, it’s better not to marry! Jesus then shocks them even more by issuing a call to renounce marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. To their Jewish ears, this is unthinkable.

    Pope John Paul II used this text in his talks on the theology of the body. He explained how marriage and celibacy are actually two sides of the same coin. They are in reality the same vocation, but lived out in different ways. How so? Love is our vocation, the love expressed in a gift of self to another. In the case of marriage, the love of the spouses binds them together in a gift of self that lasts for life. Their gift is a total gift. In the case of celibacy, the love of a person binds him or her to God in a gift of self that also lasts for life and is a gift shared with others. Both vocations are ways of pouring ourselves out in love for the sake of the beloved. Jesus points out that those who renounce marriage do so “for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven.” Celibacy anticipates the resurrection—the heavenly marriage—and is a sign of the future life in the kingdom of God (see Mt 22:30).

Oratio

    Jesus, open my eyes to see the beauty of my vocation to love. Help me to make a sincere gift of myself to you and to the people you have put in my life. I pray that married couples may grow in their love, and that those who are consecrated to celibacy for the sake of the kingdom may always witness to the joy that comes from your love.

Contemplatio

    Love is my vocation.

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ORDINARY GRACE Weeks 18–34: Daily Gospel Reflections (By the Daughters of St. Paul)