Today's Thoughts...

Today’s Thoughts: In today's gospel, Jesus rather than debating the issue of indecency, he addresses the hardness of people’s hearts. He makes it clear that unless we invite God into our relationships, more specifically our marriages, then we enter relationships, we marry for all the wrong reasons. God offers his love and his Spirit to us so profoundly that we often find it hard to comprehend. Should our love in any personal relationship call for anything less? The capacity to do so, results from a call to a close relationship with Jesus in the Spirit.
 
By contrast, the majority of today’s marriages in our imperfect world end in divorce. We all witness this daily. It is hard to find anyone who has not been touched by the struggles and sadness of divorce. As much as we make an honest effort to console family and friends caught in the struggle of broken relationships often it is hard to find the right words, or any words at all. Divorce causes God deep sorrow. In our Church, the issue of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics is a painful pastoral problem which Pope Francis has tried to address but change is slow and not without its own struggles.
 
St. Paul felt the preservation of peace was a greater value than the preservation of an unpeaceful marriage. How many of us, know of someone, who spent more than half of their adult life working dutifully on their marriage only to watch it fall apart. As challenging and difficult as divorce and broken relationships can be, it is also hopeful when encounter people who move on to a place of diminished pain and hope for new life.
 
Have a blessed Friday everyone!