Daily Archives: 4 August, 2024

What’s at the bottom? Reflection for Married Couples. John 6:24-35

GOSPEL

He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.  
Reading from the holy Gospel according to John 6:24-35
When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there,
they themselves got into boats
and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus.
And when they found him across the sea they said to him,
“Rabbi, when did you get here?”
Jesus answered them and said,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
you are looking for me not because you saw signs
but because you ate the loaves and were filled.
Do not work for food that perishes
but for the food that endures for eternal life,
which the Son of Man will give you.
For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”
So they said to him,
“What can we do to accomplish the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them,
“This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.”
So they said to him,
“What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?
What can you do?
Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:
He gave them bread from heaven to eat.”
So Jesus said to them,
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven;
my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven
and gives life to the world.”
So they said to him,
“Sir, give us this bread always.”
Jesus said to them,
“I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”
Word of the Lord.

What’s at the bottom?
At the bottom, this is what happens to us. We work not for the glory of God, but to live a pleasant marriage, full of harmony, filled with gestures of affection, in which we feel loved. But am I willing to give up the experience of living such a marriage for the love of the Lord? Or do the spouses who have been abandoned not have the right to live in the Love of God?  
That is the question, that at the bottom, I seek my own satisfaction, not to give myself to my husband out of love. And without going through the cross of self-giving, I will not be able to discover true communion. Conjugal Charity.

Grounded in Married Life:
Jaime: Dear tutors, I was very happy because everything was going very well until today when I had a bad day with my wife.  
Marriage Tutor: Define that “bad day.”  
Jaime: Well, she got up in a very grumpy and demanding mood, and she made me have a really difficult day.  
Marriage Tutor: And how did you react?  
Jaime: What am I going to do… I just tried to hang in there as best I could.  
Marriage Tutor: So, the Lord gives you the opportunity to love your wife with a mature love, participating with Him in His Love, and you have squandered it?  
Jaime: Well… Said like that… I would have to say yes, I squandered it.  
Marriage Tutor: So, you’ve lived a wonderful day as if it were a horrible day.  
Jaime: It seems so…
Mother,
Let us not seek the Lord for worldly interests but love Him in Spirit and in Truth.  
Thank you, Mother.