Posted on agosto 23, 2024 View all Gospel Reflection
«That is hard.»
This Sunday we hear two messages each that seem hard to take in at our first hearing. The first in the
Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians and the second in the Gospel of St. John. St. Paul writes how “wives
should be subordinate to their husbands” (Eph. 5:22), “husbands should love their wives as their own
bodies.” (Eph. 5:28) and the follow up to the Bread of Life discourse where the disciples say “This saying
is hard; who can accept it?” (John 6:60).
While it may seem that these two items are different, in reality they are both very connected. In John’s
Gospel, Jesus was revealing to his disciples and the people how he wanted us to be united to him
intimately through the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood. This intimate unity through the great
gift of the Eucharist is in fact one of the main reasons that Jesus came to earth. First he wanted to repay
for us the price of original sin, but then he wanted us to be restored into unity with Him and the Holy
Trinity. This unity is only possible through the gift of the Eucharist. When Jesus revealed this to them,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him. (John 6:66)
They could not allow themselves to understand his words and went back into sin and the grasp of the
enemy. When Jesus turned to the Twelve he asked them: “Do you also want to leave?” But Simon Peter
answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:67-68)
Jesus wants us to see that it is through His Body and Blood that we are united to Him. What is even
more striking for us to consider is that Jesus desires the same for married couples. When the man and
woman are married, they become one. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” (Eph. 5:31, cf. Gen. 2:24) In the Rite of Marriage
the celebrant declares this during the Nuptial Blessing when he says: “O God, who consecrated the bond
of Marriage by so great a mystery that in the wedding covenant you foreshadowed the Sacrament of
Christ and his Church; O God by whom woman is joined to man and the companionship they had in the
beginning is endowed with the one blessing not forfeited by original sin nor washed away by the flood.”
(Rite of Marriage §74)
What is even more striking (and perhaps hard to hear) is that Jesus says to the husband that he is called
to love his wife as He loves the church. And how much does Jesus love the church? He “handed himself
over for her to sanctify her, to the point of giving up his life on the cross for our salvation. So while it is
easy to focus on the words of St. Paul to the wife, the deeper message is to the husband. Ultimately
each is called to submit and die to the other. This is also why in the Sacrament of Marriage the ministers
of the Sacrament are the couple themselves. The priest just serves to witness the vows as a
representative of the Church and God.
This week I encourage those who are married to ask themselves two things: (1) How am I submitting to
my spouse in love and self-giving? and (2) How do I invite the Lord to help me do this by uniting myself
to Him in the Holy Eucharist? When we seek to do both of these things with love, it is then that the
mystery of God’s love is revealed and made present in our families, homes and world.
