When two people come together in marriage, they are simply mirroring what is happening in the Divine flow, what God is. In marriage, a couple gives themselves to each other in a way they wouldn’t give themselves to any person in the universe. In doing so, they are physically expressing God’s love. As marriage is an expression of God’s love, it means that God ordains it for his purposes. Two people coming together in marriage is an expression of God bringing them together for his purposes.
There’s a lot of heat on the Church from secular society, and it makes it easier to create an “us” and “them” mentality. But there is no ‘us and them’. Not in Jesus’ mind. For Jesus actually made every single “us” and every single “them”. We’re special, but so are they. They just don’t know it as well as we might. And what a crying shame that is!
In the Gospel today the disciples were arguing about whom was the best out of them. It can be really easy to be critical of this as a modern reader but conversely think about the last time you had a harsh and critical thought about a friend, co-worker or family member. We can be susceptible to comparing ourselves to those around us, and not always in trying to learn from the positive example they might be setting.
Jesus doesn’t deem any one of us unclean or unworthy either. No matter what’s going on in our lives, Jesus is always there willing to help and to heal us. In the midst of a broken world, Jesus is the ultimate healer and a living sign and symbol of God’s compassion. Healing is a sign of God’s incredible love and compassion for his people. Jesus doesn’t leave us where we are but takes us to new places if we choose to come before him.
Jesus too proclaims that “for it is from within, from the human heart, the evil intentions come… all these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Sometimes we are so focused on creating an image of ourselves to others, that we forget that the person we become is defined by the values we hold within our hearts and uphold each day.
Jesus never came to earth to be popular. Our faith isn’t one that panders to what is nice, it looks for what is good, holy and right, even if those truths are uncomfortable in our contexts. Jesus asks if the Apostles want to leave as well and Peter answers with incredible insight; “Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God."
But Mary doesn’t do that. She is joyful and creates this beautiful song of praise. Mary goes to visit her cousin Elizabeth and shared this gift with her. “Why am I so honoured, that the mother of my Lord should visit me?”. Mary isn’t thinking of herself, she already knows that this child is not ‘for her’, He is for us all.
