The Power of Love, Human and Divine

In today’s first reading, Tobit 6: 10-11; 7: 1abcde, 9-17; 8: 4-9a, we are told the story of Tobiah’s marriage to Sarah, daughter of Raguel. Sarah was married seven times before and each of her husbands died the night of their marriage before having relations with Sarah.  For Tobiah to be given to Sarah in marriage was, to say the least, a great risk. Would harm come to him as well and would Sarah again be devastated by acute loss, shattered dreams, by the death of yet another husband.  Sarah’s mother, in preparing her daughter for this eighth marriage, says to her: “Be brave, my daughter. May the Lord grant you joy in place of your grief. Courage, my daughter.”  Sarah’s father says to Tobiah: “Your marriage  to her has been decided in heaven! Take your kinswoman; from now on you are her love, and she is your beloved. She is yours today and ever after. And tonight, son, may the Lord of heaven prosper you both. May he grant you mercy and peace.”  That night, Tobiah says to Sarah, “My love, get up. Let us pray and beg our Lord to have mercy on us and grant us deliverance.” The couple prayed and begged the Lord for deliverance that night, blessing the Lord, praising His name, calling upon the heavens and all of creation to praise God. And then said to God: “You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve to be his help and support; and from these two the human race descended…Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age.”

What love! What an intimate relationship with the Lord. God must have smiled on both of them. Several lessons emerge for me from this story, as I reflect upon this Scripture passage: 1) every vocation is made in heaven, 2) Putting God at the center of each of the events in our lives is important, and especially when choosing our vocation, 3) Intimacy with the Lord is a lifetime task that needs to be taught to our children/grandchildren early in life, 4) Taking risks is possible when our faith/hope is anchored in the Lord, 5) Love must be the motivator of our choice of vocation or any other choice, not lust, not power, not “It is going to be my way or the highway; I’m the boss here.” 

What lessons emerge for you? What is God saying to you in this passage?

Created in the Image and Likeness of God

Today’s first reading, Gen. 1: 20-2:4a, is a continuation of the creation story.  On the 6^th day of creation, “God said: ‘Let us make man [and woman] in our image, after our likeness.”  And God looked at His creation of us and “found it very good.”  Every man and every woman reflects the image of God, reveals God’s nature, God’s intelligence, God’s love and compassion for all that He created, beginning with self and others and the animal and plant kingdom as well. 

One of the most expressive images of the Triune God occurs in marriage when a man and a woman  join together to become one flesh.  God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are one God in three divine persons. A married couple become one in love and out of that love create a third person, the child who takes on the nature of the father and the mother in its mother’s womb.   A husband and a wife strive to give themselves totally to one another in much the same way as the Father gives Himself totally to the Son, the Son gives Himself totally to the Father, and their complete love for one another is the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Blessed Trinity. 

O God, may  all of us, married and/or single, imitate you in totally giving of ourselves for the sake of the other. May the love we have for you, the Triune God, bring to fruition in us the self-giving, self-sacrificing, self-effacing love that makes new life a reality all around us.