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.)
Father David S. Marcham is a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and serves as Vice Postulator and Guild Director of the Cause for Canonization of Venerable Patrick Peyton. Before entering St. John’s Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts, he worked for eleven years as a physical therapist in Boston-area hospitals. Ordained in 2005, Father David was assigned to St. Mary Parish in Franklin, Massachusetts. His involvement in Father Peyton’s Cause began in 2007, when he assisted Father George Lucas, C.S.C., in advancing the Cause for Canonization. Appointed Vice Postulator in 2009, Father David oversees the progress of the Cause, directs the Guild, and promotes devotion to Father Peyton’s legacy of family prayer.
