We complete this season by speaking with Veronica Alonzo, Associate Superintendent for the Dallas Catholic Schools, about discovering meaning in personal loss, her vocation as an educator, and perspectives on Catholic education.
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Today’s Daily Gospel Reflection
October 6, 2024
Gospel
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.”
I love teaching Theology at Our Lady’s University. Here, we teach under Mary’s guidance. Gilded in gold and placed atop the Golden Dome, she looks out over our campus community, radiant with God’s love. Daily, she offers the one lesson I hope to instill in all of my students: God’s love for us exceeds any love we could ever imagine on our own.
Jesus is God’s unimaginable love, enfleshed. He is the Gospel! Thus, whenever we seek an encounter with Christ by reading Scripture, we must be prepared to let Scripture stretch us beyond the boundaries of our imaginations.
The first Christians to communicate the Gospel had a difficult task: How does one teach a love beyond all imagining? Often, these writers, like St. Mark, took their cue from Jesus himself, who communicated God’s love in words, images, and experiences familiar to us. Just think of all of Christ’s parables!
Today, Mark recalls Christ’s teaching by reference to marriage. In a similar passage in Ephesians, St. Paul recalls the same thing. Paul writes: “For this reason [to cherish his spouse] a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.”
A great mystery, indeed! Beyond our imagining! And marriage, as Mark and Paul remind us as they echo Christ’s teaching, images God’s love. From this image, we move toward understanding God’s love for us: God cherishes us so deeply that God became incarnate, flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone!
And so we return to Mary, the very one in whom the wedding of flesh and love took place. May she teach us to love the Gospel and to embody it always.
Prayer
Lord, you teach us to hold the covenant of marriage in the highest dignity. Bless all husbands and wives in their promises of love and fidelity to one another. Help all couples experiencing difficulties. Assist all members of your Church to support and encourage one another in our vocations. Amen.
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EverydayHoliness
A PODCAST BY FAITH ND
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