Marriage & the Image of God - Fr. Mark Goring, CC

when i was ordained i was 26 years old one of the things i started to do was to officiate at marriages and have to give a homily out of marriage and i found this kind of a little odd and and made me a little anxious because i didn't know anything about marriage i was completely clueless about marriage and here i am giving a homily at a wedding and i was thinking to myself like surely in a situation like this you know we could get a married man who's been married for 30 40 years or a married woman you know let them talk about marriage you know they know the realities of marriage and i thought well maybe that might not be the best idea either you know they say ignorance is bliss you know i mean they'll learn about the reality of marriage pretty soon you know maybe we can just leave the marriage wedding as a joyful celebration anyways in the first reading we hear about the lord putting adam into a deep sleep and then taking one of adam's ribs and from that rib creating woman and this of course comes from scripture but there's also kind of extra biblical sources that we usually don't take too seriously but you know they kind of give us some id some some ideas there's the story of after god created adam and eve eve noticed adam's becoming a little distant a little distracted and she got a little concerned and even suspicious so one night adam woke up and it's like someone was tickling his side and he noticed that eve was kind of touching his his side and he said to her eve what are you doing and she said i'm counting your ribs he said why are you counting my ribs she said i'm trying to figure out if there's another woman so anyways i'm not sure if that story is to be taken seriously but that's that's the way the story goes when jesus was asked about divorce in the gospel today which is a common question everyone's got their opinion on that of course jesus answers by going super deep kind of like when you're in a boat you know sometimes you know you're on a body of water and you go from like four feet of water all of a sudden to like a hundred feet of dot water you just suddenly suddenly just go deep and that's what the lord jesus is doing when he's asked about marriage and divorce he answers by saying that's not the way it was in the beginning like he goes to the beginning and it speaks about adam and eve being made to be one he's saying god makes husband and wife one flesh they become one as it was in the beginning and if we look at the beginning the first words of sacred scripture genesis it says in the beginning god and we know as we read on in scripture that god is love god is love and as we continue to read we discover that god is a is a union of love a holy trinity the holy trinity this divine exchange of love this perfect unity so perfectly one that that there's nothing no separation perfectly one yet a unity of three persons this this exchange this unity of love and we know that man was made in the image and likeness of god and that's why some interpreters they say when when the lord says it is not good for man to be alone speaking of adam being alone one interpretation of that is that god alone is good and he's creating man in his image and likeness and it's not good it's not you could say god yet there's there's not the fullness of the imaging of god until man in the inclusive sense becomes a communion of love and so god creates eve and now we have two we have adam eve we have husband wife male female and the mystery is just as with the holy trinity this mystery of love the love of the father being poured into the sun the love of the sun being re received and reciprocated poured into the father eternally the spiration of love this love between the father and the son so real that he's a person the person of the holy spirit so in the trinity one plus one equals three and so too man in the inclusive sense we have husband and wife male and female one plus one that exchange of love that that that mutual giving and receiving embrace of love is so real that nine months later you give it a name it's a person and so you see how man and again in the inclusive sense imaging god really isn't just adam out there on his own it's this wonderful communion of love this equality man woman equal pouring love their love of receiving love in such a real way that it's fruitful that it gives life just as the holy spirit emanates from the father and the son pouring out life and jesus our lord jesus he points to this mystery to this truth when discussing the the topic of marriage when we speak of marriage again we're always looking to the holy trinity to to god because we're we're the image and likeness of god the love between the persons of the trinity between the father and the son giving life the holy spirit is reflected is paralleled in the love between husband and wife in marriage in marriage love must be free you can't take a lady at gunpoint and say you're going to marry me if you were to do that you'd get a real quick annulment that's not a true marriage both parties have to come freely and so too and for all of eternity god wants us with him in heaven united to him but he doesn't force anyone to go to heaven love the married love the trinity love it's it's free so there's four things free it's total god doesn't hold anything back he holds nothing in reserve when he loves and so too marriage it's total no conditions no strings attached free total it's faithful [Music] in the beginning god god is love god's love is everlasting god's love endures forever and so too married love it's forever it's everlasting again imaging the love of the trinity free total faithful and it's fruitful you know the love between husband and wife open to life to children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren so on and and again the fruitfulness of this love even goes beyond you know children it's also you know the the ways they serve others um maybe the ministries they do things like that and so lives can be tremendously fruitful but again in marriage in a particular way through through children now it's so important for us to see this again when jesus is asked about divorce he goes deep but he wants us to understand this mystery of who we are and so what should happen to us as we ponder god's word and also how many of you are familiar of saint john paul ii's teaching of the theology of the body have you any of you heard of that many of you yes so you know it's important for us to to learn about the mystery of our identity as as children of god and as we do this we're supposed to see i see god you know some people they they wonder well what's god like is he mad at me does he really love me does god exist and and so on and for me for people who are struggling with the reality of god one of the simplest answers is go look at a mother with her child her newborn child holding her look at that love there's god that's god right there it's an image because remember creation reflects the creator or i love to see dads with their little children you know maybe a child uh jumping on the father's lap and playing with his face maybe pulling his beard in the father filled with love and delight and the child delighting in his father that's god i see god i see god or or grandparents because again the love between husband and wife which is meant to to be uh fruitful in so many ways it's kind of like a cascade you know if water comes out the side of a mountain a spring an inexhaustible spring from a deep source comes out of the mountain it begins to cascade it begins to divide and get bigger and bigger divide not in the negative sense but in the it's spread to diffuse and all of a sudden you have this beautiful cascading waterfall with all these riverlets that is what's meant to happen in the imaging of god in the oneness the union of husband and wife children and grandchildren and and helping others and siblings playing together and and and grandparents in in in birthday parties in in christmas uh celebrations all of this beautiful effusion of love which we'd also see in the consecrated life of course you think of father bob bedard filled with the love of god lived a union with god which was fruitful so many fruits of father bob's life and love with god that flowed through him through the spirit we see as a matter of fact when i was 17 years old i came to saint mary's parish i heard father bob preach i met him and i was inspired to join his community the companions of the cross now many years later i'm the guy in the pulpit now hopefully speaking about the love of god letting this love to be diffusive and so again the consecrated life too is meant to to be diffusive like like a cascade and and again as we grow in the spiritual life and as we ponder god's mysteries and his word the lord gives us eyes to see this we see things differently and i find myself like as i get older i just things touch me more you know like what's the expression i'm getting sentimental in my old age you know i'll see an elderly couple a husband and wife walking together holding hands through the park and i'm just like oh i'm moved you know i see children playing i see especially when i see a father with his child a mother with her child a husband and wife together with a newborn i'm just like i see god i see god this is beautiful this is it this is all the theology and philosophy you need i don't know i don't know if you guys does anyone have that similar experience nobody does everyone think i'm weird more hands are going up that's fine i don't care the lord wants us to see and again part of seeing this it's important because it it it helps us to make the right decisions it helps us to choose the right path we know that again marriage the union of man and woman husband and wife giving life this is sacred this is holy it's an image of god and and with the theology of the body they always teach you don't take an image of the holy trinity and break it that would be that would be a a defilement and so we need to to to call out you know we need to recognize that wait a minute that's not god when we think when we see things introduced when we see things promoted maybe in the media when we hear new ideologies we need to be able to recognize that's not god that's not god that's not how it was in the beginning that's not god's design his imaging of his of his great love now when we when we are given clarity our lord jesus as we heard in the gospel when he was asked about divorce the lord jesus he gives us clarity he doesn't give us clarity so that we can throw stones at people when the woman who was caught in adultery was thrown at the feet of jesus jesus didn't throw stones at her he didn't tell people to to throw stones at her he forgave her he was merciful to her and we too we need to be merciful the lord jesus why does he give us clarity he gives us clarity because he wants us to know the truth do you want to know the truth jesus wants us to know the truth so that we can have life and what is the truth the truth is again the union of man and woman begetting life that's an image of the trinity and anything else is a defilement you could say it's an abomination sex outside marriage it's an abomination when we look at god's design his plan it's wrong pornography it's an abomination that's what it is adultery adultery is an abomination entertaining adulterous thoughts it's an abomination it's wrong contraception closing love to life is an abomination trying to redefine marriage it's an abomination it's taking this imaging this beautiful life-giving imaging of the holy trinity of god and it's defiling it and it's important for us again to not be afraid like jesus to speak the truth again not in condemnation not throwing stones at people in love but with clarity marriage is sacred it's holy it's beautiful it's the imaging of god we should never be ashamed of defending marriage we should never stop defending marriage

Channel: Fr. Mark Goring

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Length: 16min 45sec (1005 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 04 2021