When you first look at today’s readings, they don’t seem to have much common ground. The first reading from Exodus is a series of God’s “great deeds,” meant to elicit gratitude from the Israelites, a gratitude that flows from God’s fidelity.
The Gospel from Matthew is the well-known passage that speaks of the bond of marriage where a man and a woman rightly choose one another and form one flesh that cannot be divided by human decision.
This relationship, marriage, this covenant also has to with fidelity - fidelity of husband to wife - united in God.
Whether in the Old Testament or the New Testament, it all begins with God’s fidelity. The passage from Exodus is a litany of God’s faithfulness through the years. A wider view reveals that God has brought His people, including our ancestors and our current families, to a better place or situation through the centuries. In essence, God fulfills our deepest needs.
However, it’s not meant to be a one-way street. A relationship, a covenant, involves reciprocity. The call to us is to respond with fidelity - to God - and each other.
Joshua--calls the people together at God’s command to inspire a response of gratitude within the people. Gratitude is the first and most important step in loving someone. When we are grateful, it’s because we recognize the good we’ve received from someone or God.
You know, one of the great obstacles to love in the post-modern world is - individualism - the sense that we don’t need and don’t want to be in a relationship with God and others.
But this goes against how were are made - our parents cooperated with God’s grace to conceive and bring each one of us to life. That alone is a miracle, and it also reveals that we are not meant to be apart or autonomous beings - we’re made to be communal both in families and society.
So today’s readings can bring us to take stock of our lives, both past, and present. We could ask: Am I living like I was made by God or like I’m just a number?
Do I invest in my family, marriage, neighborhood, and parish, or is my focus simply on me?
What is my story with God?
How has God and my family and ancestors - allowed me to hear the Word of God in the past and right now - and let it enlighten, challenge, and strengthen me?
And, lastly, what am I grateful for from God, my family, and friends?
My brothers and sisters, as we ponder these questions, let us remember, we both need and have God in our corner. We need men and women who turn to God and form strong and loving marriages that bear future generations who know and love God and each other.
Whatever your vocation or current station in life, each of us can give thanks to God and invest - beginning with prayers for husbands and wives and their children - and in so many other ways that will show our love and gratitude for all that and God-loving families bring to our world.
May God bless you and your families this holy day!
Father David's inspirational homily was recorded live this morning during Mass at the Father Peyton Center. Please view the video on our Facebook page.(You don't need a Facebook account to view.)
Reverend David S. Marcham is the Vice Postulator for the Cause of Venerable Patrick Peyton, and Director of the Father Peyton Guild, whose members pray for Father Peyton’s beatification and spread his message of the importance of Family Prayer. Prior to becoming a seminarian, Father David was a physical therapist and clinical instructor, serving hospital inpatients and outpatients throughout the greater Boston area for eleven years. In 1998 he heard the call to priesthood and was ordained in the Archdiocese of Boston in 2005. Father David grew up in Quincy, MA, and has fond memories of playing soccer, tennis and running track. You’re never without a friend when Father David is around, as he welcomes everyone into his circle with a smile on his face!
