Daily Gospel Reflection
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August 12, 2022
Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying,
“Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?”
He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning
the Creator made them male and female and said,
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, man must not separate.”
They said to him, “Then why did Moses command
that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?”
He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts
Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,
but from the beginning it was not so.
I say to you, whoever divorces his wife
(unless the marriage is unlawful)
and marries another commits adultery.”
His disciples said to him,
“If that is the case of a man with his wife,
it is better not to marry.”
He answered, “Not all can accept this word,
but only those to whom that is granted.
Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so;
some, because they were made so by others;
some, because they have renounced marriage
for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven.
Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”
Today’s gospel calls to mind the parable of Chesterton’s fence. The great Catholic lay-theologian G.K. Chesterton posited the existence of an open field, in the middle of which is a fence that no longer appears to serve any useful purpose.
A first impulse might be to tear down the fence. Chesterton cautions, though, that someone built the fence for a reason, and we ought to understand what that reason was before calling in the bulldozers. Otherwise, we might be overlooking critical secondary effects, causing unintended consequences.
There was a time when divorce carried a significant social stigma. That is no longer the case, and this is not necessarily a bad thing. The divorced should not have to wear a Scarlet Letter of useless shame.
However, we might be well served by giving a bit more thought to why that fence had existed in the first place before being too quick to tear it down with “Hey, stuff happens!” shrugs of resignation. Perhaps part of the stigma was our internal, natural law awareness of the deep consequences of separating what “God has joined together”?
Marriage is challenging, calling for a sacrificial commitment to do the hard work necessary to ensure that “the two shall [remain] one flesh.” Difficult times come to even the best of marriages. Some, unfortunately, must work through the heartbreaking process of civil divorce and annulment. But those that can work through those challenges will find that they have forged stronger, more enduring bonds.
After many years—decades even—some may even be blessed to reach a wonderfully comfortable familiarity. A rut? Not at all. Rather, it is a state of deep companionate love, a profound manifestation of what Jesus meant when he said, “So they are no longer two, but one flesh.”
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.
Saint of the Day
St. Jane Frances de Chantal was faithful to every role she played in life: wife, mother, citizen, and religious sister.
She was born in 1572 in France; her father was president of the parliament of Burgundy. At her Confirmation, Jane took the name Frances, and she married an officer in the French military when she was 20. He had a large estate that had fallen into disrepair since his mother died; Jane immediately established regular order among the staff.
The couple had seven children, three of whom died soon after birth. After eight years of marriage, her husband was shot in the thigh during a hunting accident. He survived for nine days, enduring painful surgeries from an incompetent doctor. When he died, Jane was left a widow at the age of 28.
Jane was devastated, and fell into depression for months until she was persuaded to carry on for the good of her children. She prayed that God would show her a holy guide who could help her discover what she was to do with the rest of her life. During one period of prayer, she had a vision of a man whom she did not know. Later, when she witnessed St. Francis de Sales preaching in her town, she recognized him as the man from her vision.
St. Francis would visit her father’s home frequently, and over the course of sharing meals with him and her family, Jane came to trust his wisdom. She turned to him for direction, and he encouraged her to attend to her responsibilities—to pursue holiness in her role as mother and a woman in the world.
She kept a strict schedule, dedicating much time to prayer and the care and education of her children, and she also visited sick people who lived in her neighborhood, sometimes staying up the whole night to sit with them as they lay dying.
When her children were teenagers, St. Francis encouraged Jane to establish a new religious community of sisters and helped her open a convent for the Sisters of the Visitation of Mary in 1610. St. Francis envisioned the order to be active in the world, serving others, and to be a place for women to go if they had not been accepted by other orders.
Humility was declared as a founding value for the new community, and won over people who doubted the new order or opposed its growth. Convents sprung up throughout France, 65 in all, and when she opened a convent in Paris, Jane came to know another great holy man, St. Vincent de Paul. (St. Jane is pictured with St. Vincent in this stained glass window from the chapel in Geddes Hall.) St. Vincent said that Jane was one of the holiest people he had ever met.
Jane experienced much grief and loss in her life. Nearly all of her children died before she did, and she grieved the death of her great friend and mentor, St. Francis de Sales. She was confronted with temptation and periods of dryness in prayer, and met many obstacles in her work. Through it all, she remained humble and faithful. “Destroy, cut, burn whatever opposes your holy will,” she prayed.
She died at the age of 69 and was buried next to St. Francis de Sales in the original convent they established. Her relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica and she is pictured there in stained glass windows; one window shows her distributing bread to the poor.
St. Jane Frances de Chantal, you sought God even through depression and were led to serve others—pray for us!