On that day, says the LORD,
She shall call me “My husband,”
and never again “My baal.”
I will espouse you to me forever:
I will espouse you in right and in justice,
in love and in mercy;
I will espouse you in fidelity,
and you shall know the LORD.
The prophet Hosea was the first to describe God's covenant with Israel as a marriage. It is, for both parties, beautiful, irrevocable and eternal, joyous, utterly satisfying, and fruitful. It is also intensely emotional, demanding, and extraordinarily difficult.
The metaphor was picked up by the later prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; and Saint Paul reapplied it to Jesus and his Church. When asked about the nature of marriage, Jesus reiterated the stricter tradition of Genesis and explained,
It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so.
The Church takes these words of Jesus literally, recognizing divorce only in those cases where marriage was clearly impossible. (Given our human capacity for getting even the best things absurdly wrong, there are many such cases.)
Despite its promise, marriage has never been easy for anyone. Hosea knew that for his marriage to Gomer was difficult from the start. A couple may feel they have sacrificed much already, before arriving at the altar, but the phrase "for better, for worse; in sickness and in health" includes physical, mental, spiritual, financial, legal, and social challenges without end, into a very long and indefinite future. It includes frequent misunderstandings, many disappointments, and occasional betrayal, not to mention all the occasions when one spouse alone will have to alter a decision they made together. They will forgive one another repeatedly, with restored trust, hope, and confidence each time. Ordinarily, the first twenty years are very difficult, but it never gets easy.
When Jesus insisted upon this traditional teaching his disciples gasped,
‘If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.’ But he said to them, ‘Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given.
Hosea saw that God had given his people a covenant similar to that of husband and wife. But his covenanted love for a temple prostitute, made in prophetic obedience to the Lord's command, manifested all the challenges typical of marriage and then some! But, in obedience to the Lord and because marriage is a covenant, he could not and would not abandon Gomer even to her own obscene and habitual choices.
We cannot imagine Jesus annulling his covenant with the Church even when divorce stalks every couple, and hangs like a nuclear cloud over the entire planet, choking out life and destroying the lives of millions of innocent children. We cannot live without the joyous promise and eager expectation of endless bliss in his embrace. We will not stop believing in the Lord's faithful love, nor will we stop discovering that fidelity among our married couples.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.