Friday, XXI Week of Ordinary Time
(I Thessalonians 4)
Sometimes we hear the cry, “The Church should get out of the marriage business.” Parish ministers make this complaint with a good intention. They mean to help those who have been involved in failed marriages receive the sacraments.
But how could the Church withdraw from regulating marriage? It is precisely in this relationship that a man and a woman express the deepest dimensions of themselves to one another. It is here as well that most people draw the support to live in the world. God certainly is involved in the marriage relationship, and the Church has the obligation to draw attention to His presence so that the couple may benefit from it. Marriage impediments to sacramental participation indicate that God’s activity has been attenuated and that the situation requires correction.
Certainly the apostle Paul does not refrain from addressing the issue of marriage in his letters to Christian communities. In today’s reading from the First Letter to the Thessalonians Paul insists that marriage not be exploitative. A man is not to treat his wife as a plaything to be enjoyed and tossed aside. Rather he must care for and respect his wife like he would his best friend. Perhaps in Paul’s day there was less need than there is today to point out the same truth from the other side. A woman must not consider her husband as a boy who brings home a paycheck. No, she must also love him and support his worthy pursuits.
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