Friendship, divorce and the nature of people to
tend toward commitment are reflections encouraged by the texts from the RomanCatholic Lectionary today. The prophet Sirach offers wisdom about the rarity of
deep friendship. People may have many acquaintances but Sirach says true
friends are rare. Friar Jude Winkler reflects that a good test for a deep
friend rests in the fear of God. The authentic struggle to be in relationship
with the Divine cultivates virtues like compassion, pardon and acceptance.
Great damage is done in friendship through abuse of the truth. The pursuit of
truth and perhaps the struggle for covenant relationship between people is part
of our nature and a characteristic of our creation in the image of God. Article2467 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church declares that man by nature tends
to the truth. The Gospel from Mark presents a question from the Pharisees to
Jesus about the lawfulness of divorce. Jesus response is much more specific than
the opinions of Jewish rabbinical leaders of His time. Friar Jude notes that Mark
has included the notion that women might initiate divorce their husbands which
would be a possibility for a Greek audience but not a possibility in Jewish
society. Some Jewish commentary about true bliss describes the lifelong
covenant relationship between husband and wife realized in the partnership of
old age as this complete happiness. Complete and full life for is the mission
for which Jesus is incarnate. We bring about the possibility of the success of
this mission for people by our adherence to the pursuit of the truth and of
Covenant relationship as the evidence of the bliss which is in the fear of God.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment