Daily Gospel Reflection
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August 14, 2026
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.”
Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner. The full readings of the day from the Lectionary are available here.
In all honesty, I struggled a bit with this reflection as a 21-year-old not yet blessed—or I guess in this gospel, “troubled”—by the sacrament of marriage. I came to realize, however, that Jesus’ teaching here applies to so much more than just the one sacrament. It is about commitment, and the necessity of following through with our promises, not only to one another, but to God.
In the case of today’s gospel, Jesus explicitly defines adultery to the Pharisees, and like many modern adults approaching faith, the Pharisees respond by trying to find some sort of loophole, some way to forgo the directness of his words. Rather than accept, the Pharisees say, “If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry”.
The frankness of the Pharisees’ response reminds me of society’s modern views on marriage. The media is oversaturated with examples of young couples testing out their relationships, their chemistry; many for years on end, some avoiding a promise of commitment altogether.
During my time as a student at Notre Dame, I found my faith tested again and again. I took a theology class on Thomas Aquinas my junior year and realized all the ways I was failing in my commitment to God. We learned about the concept of “culpable ignorance,” which means that there are certain sins for which we have a moral responsibility to know better. I believe—as in the case with the Pharisees—we often shirk our responsibilities to our faith, choosing ignorance. We sometimes view our faith through a moral therapeutic deist lens, choosing to follow God when it is convenient, but forgoing God’s teachings when we believe they shouldn’t apply to us.
Marriage, like faith, is a commitment. A sacrifice. A promise that even when things get difficult, we will not avoid our responsibility to honor each other and God’s union. Every day I pray for the strength to follow God’s teachings and, like Jesus teaches, to accept his Word.
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
Maximilian Kolbe was an outspoken Franciscan priest from Poland who was killed for opposing the Nazis.
He was born Raymund Kolbe in Poland, then part of the Russian empire, to a German father and Polish mother. Raymund had four brothers (though two passed away in early childhood), and shortly after his birth, his family moved to Pabiance, a city in central Poland.
When he was 12, Raymund received a vision of Mary while he was praying in front of an image of Our Lady of Czestochowa. She approached him with two crowns, one white and one red. “I asked the Mother of God what was to become of me,” he said. “She asked if I was willing to accept either of these crowns. The white one meant that I should persevere in purity, and the red that I should become a martyr. I said that I would accept them both.”
He entered the seminary and became a Franciscan priest, taking the name Maximilian. He went on to higher studies at several universities in Europe and earned his doctoral degree in theology—in fact, his ideas about Mary found resonance in the later developments of the Second Vatican Council.
With some friends, he established an “army” for the Immaculate Heart of Mary—a group of people dedicated to conversion and devotion to Mary. He fell ill with tuberculosis, and never fully recovered—he spent the rest of his life in fragile health that would frequently interrupt his work.
He returned to Poland and began a flurry of evangelical activity, establishing a magazine and newspaper, which, at their peak, were publishing close to 1 million copies a day. He also founded a monastery and junior seminary.
He took some companions to evangelize Japan, even though they did not know the language and had no money. Within months, he was publishing 65,000 copies of his magazine in Japanese there and had founded a monastery in Nagasaki. The monastery survived the later nuclear bomb blast there, and continues to serve as a center for Franciscans in Japan.
His poor health forced him to return to Poland in 1936, and he helped his monastery establish a radio station. By 1939, the monastery in Poland held some 800 monks, the largest in the world at the time.
When the Nazis invaded Poland in the fall of 1939, Maximilian was arrested and detained for a time. After his release, his monastery’s media continued to publicly oppose the Nazis; they hid some 3,000 Polish refugees, most of whom were Jewish. The Nazis cracked down on the monastery, shut down the presses, dispersed the brothers, and imprisoned Maximilian.
In 1941, Maximilian was transferred to the concentration camp at Auschwitz, where he became prisoner 16670. His calm demeanor and faithfulness earned him beatings and the most difficult tasks. Once he was beaten and whipped so badly, he was left for dead. Prisoners snuck him into the camp hospital, and he spent his recovery hearing confessions.
In July of that year, some prisoners escaped the camp. In retribution, the Nazis selected ten men for execution for each man that escaped. One man who was selected for execution exclaimed, sobbing, that he had a wife and young children. Maximilian volunteered to take the man’s place.
Maximilian and nine other prisoners were sealed in a chamber without food or water. He survived on prayer for two weeks before he was executed by lethal injection on this day in 1941. The man he saved was present with his family at Maximilian’s canonization Mass 40 years later.
Because of the manner of his execution, St. Maximilian Kolbe is the patron saint of drug addicts; he is also patron of political prisoners, families, journalists, and the pro-life movement. His story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference with the Notre Dame Vision program.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, you opposed the Nazis and gave your life that another prisoner could live—pray for us!
To learn even more about Saint Maximilian Kolbe, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Maximilian Kolbe is an illustration by Julie Lonneman, who holds exclusive rights to the further distribution and publication of her art. Used with permission.