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Last call. Reflection for Married Couples. St. Matthew 13:47-53

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GOSPEL

The good are gathered in baskets and the bad are thrown away.  
A reading from the holy Gospel according to St. Matthew 13:47-53
Jesus said to the disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a net thrown into the sea,
which collects fish of every kind.
When it is full they haul it ashore
and sit down to put what is good into buckets.
What is bad they throw away.
Thus it will be at the end of the age.
The angels will go out and separate the wicked from the righteous
and throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.”
“Do you understand all these things?”
They answered, “Yes.”
And he replied,
“Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven
is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom
both the new and the old.”
When Jesus finished these parables, he went away from there.
The Word of the Lord.

Last call.
Let’s talk about the final judgment. What? Yes, yes, it is real. There will be a final judgment! The devil wants us to downplay its importance: Since God is merciful… anything goes. No one will be condemned. God is too good. Right? And who knows God? The most distant? Who dares to judge God? The problem is not that God lacks love, obviously, since He is love. Up to that point, salvation is guaranteed. But what if I reject salvation? What if I rejected it yesterday? Today? Tomorrow? The problem is that I do not love God above all things yesterday, today, or tomorrow because I am focused on other things that attract my attention more. If I didn’t prioritize Him yesterday, I am not prioritizing Him today, and I won’t give Him priority tomorrow… Do I intend to believe that in the last moment things will change? How am I going to love Him above all things if I have never been interested? The holy fear of God does not consist of being afraid of Him. It consists of fearing for one second of my life without Him!

Putting it into the context of married life:
Jaime: No, no, but I “believe.” God exists…  
Marriage Mentor: If you believe that God exists, your life should be oriented toward Him, right? Have you taken the time to know Him? Have you contemplated His admirable vastness?  
Jaime: Well, God is there wherever He may be and I am here. I believe that someone has created all of this, but nothing more. I can’t see anything else.  
Marriage Mentor: But if He created you, He must have created you for a reason, right? He wants to have a relationship with you, don’t you think?  
Jaime: I don’t know. I haven’t thought about it.  
Marriage Mentor: Are you not interested in knowing the one who created the entire universe? The one who created you? The one who created your wife? The one who gave her to you? The one who created your children? The one who entrusted them to you…? The one who created and gave you everything you love and care about in life?  
Jaime: I don’t know; I hadn’t thought about it. Yes, of course I would like to get to know Him!  
Marriage Mentor: Do you understand His vastness? His power? His love? Well, desire to know Him. The way is to know Your Mother; she will take you to Her Son, and His Son will show you the Father. All this will be accomplished by the work of the Holy Spirit. You only have to do one thing: Want to know Him, but for real. By taking an interest, getting closer to the Church, and through your matrimonial vocation which is your calling to reach Him. And if you don’t want to, or you don’t have time, don’t expect that on the last day you will have more interest than today. Whatever you have to do, do it now, before it is too late. He, God, is waiting for you…

Mother,
Every day of our married and family life, I have the opportunity to discard the bad that distracts me and keep the good that leads me to the Lord. We choose hope. We choose Love. Blessed be God, immense, omnipotent, Holy. 

And joy?. Reflection for Married Couples. Saint Matthew 13, 44-46

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GOSPEL

Sell everything you have and buy the field
Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 13, 44-46
Jesus said to his disciples:
“The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field,
which a person finds and hides again,
and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant
searching for fine pearls.
When he finds a pearl of great price,
he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.”
Word of the Lord.

And joy?
The Lord gives me many opportunities to live in the Kingdom. To live them, it is necessary to renounce other “treasures,” some even good, although not as good as the one that God has in store for me. That treasure is, of course, Christ, but He presents to me a specific field where I can encounter Him. That field is my marriage. 
But in this Gospel, in which Jesus presents two situations where the Kingdom is lived, He shows me today a common factor between both, and that is joy. 
If I do not live my marriage and the renunciations it entails with joy, it means that I have not truly discovered the treasure, which is the love of Christ among us. It is likely that the only thing I have to “sell” are my miseries, but I must also offer them with joy because He exchanges them for Himself who offers Himself to me.

Grounded in Married Life:
Lucas: Many times you tell me that I do not value you enough.
Sara: It’s just that I don’t feel valued.
Lucas: Well, today, dear wife, I have to agree with you. Because if I really valued you in your true measure, I would give myself to you with joy, because Christ is in you, yet there is no joy in my giving.
Sara: Thank you, husband. But it’s true that I was looking for appreciation towards me, and value is not in me but in Christ.

Mother,
Thank you for living and showing me the Kingdom of God. Blessed be the Lord.

“Fall” or “act”. Reflection for Married Couples. Saint Matthew 13:36-43

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GOSPEL
Just as the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.
Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew 13:36-43
Jesus dismissed the crowds and went into the house.
His disciples approached him and said,
“Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
He said in reply, “He who sows good seed is the Son of Man,
the field is the world, the good seed the children of the Kingdom.
The weeds are the children of the Evil One,
and the enemy who sows them is the Devil.
The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire,
so will it be at the end of the age.
The Son of Man will send his angels,
and they will collect out of his Kingdom
all who cause others to sin and all evildoers.
They will throw them into the fiery furnace,
where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun
in the Kingdom of their Father.
Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
The Gospel of the Lord.

“Fall” or “act”
Wheat or weeds? Which side am I really on? Today the Lord speaks of these two sides: Citizens of the Kingdom and followers of the Evil One. Being “citizens of the Kingdom” may make us feel identified, because Baptism gave us the “residence permit” and all that’s left is to try not to step out. One thing is for sure, we are not followers of the Evil One. We try to follow the Lord and transmit His Word.
Between “falling” into temptation or “acting” iniquity there is an important difference. It’s the intention. Saint John Paul II says that the key lies in the intentionality of the heart. What is my intention when I look at you? When I speak to you? When I do or don’t do things? That is what will distinguish me as a citizen of the Kingdom or as weeds.

Applied to married life:
Jaime: My wife has flaws. Sometimes she gets nervous and a bit unbearable. Sometimes she only sees the most negative of me, and finds it hard to accept it, other times she is proud, sometimes arrogant and doesn’t want to admit her flaws… Yes, my wife has flaws. But I love her. I know she struggles to improve, even though sometimes it goes worse and other times better. I have been created as a help, to encourage her, to keep fighting, not to lose hope, to remember that God is merciful and loves her just as she is.
Teresa (Jaime’s Wife): My husband also has flaws. Sometimes he is impulsive and gets angry, other times he is too harsh with the children, other times he is proud, sometimes it’s hard for him to deepen, other times he is selfish… But I know that he repents, asks for forgiveness and strives to do better every day. For all those weaknesses to disappear depends on God, but in the meantime, he is willing to keep fighting until God grants him Grace. I love him just as he is, and my greatest gift would be to help him with affection and patience so that he never gives up.

Mother,
We ask for the grace of perseverance, to be able to be with you one day in the Kingdom of Heaven. Praise be to God who gives us this wonderful opportunity.

It refreshes me. Reflection for Married Couples. Saint John 11, 19-27

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GOSPEL

I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God.
Reading from the holy Gospel according to Saint John 11, 19-27
Many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary
to comfort them about their brother [Lazarus, who had died].
When Martha heard that Jesus was coming,
she went to meet him;
but Mary sat at home.
Martha said to Jesus,
“Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died.
But even now I know that whatever you ask of God,
God will give you.”
Jesus said to her,
“Your brother will rise.”
Martha said to him,
“I know he will rise,
in the resurrection on the last day.”
Jesus told her,
“I am the resurrection and the life;
whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live,
and anyone who lives and believes in me will never die.
Do you believe this?”
She said to him, “Yes, Lord.
I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God,
the one who is coming into the world.”
The word of the Lord.

It refreshes me.
To Martha (whose memory we celebrate today), the Lord asks, “Do you believe in me? Or in other words: Do you trust that I am the living Son of God and have power over death?” She believed, and that is why she is a saint.
It is the same question that is asked of me today, if I am restless with so many things, if I lack hope because… “I am the resurrection and the life: whoever believes in me, even though they die, will live, and whoever is alive and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Related to married life:
Juanjo: After an “intense” day of married and family life, with my own concerns, you with yours, the kids constantly in the middle, work problems, household finances, cleaning, cooking, shopping… a tremendous wear and tear. And that’s when I have to leave everything aside and do what Martha did: Go out to meet Jesus. The TV disturbs me. The Internet doesn’t give me rest either. I only find rest in lying down on the Heart of Jesus and resting in you, Miriam. In your beauty, in your femininity, in your joy…
Miriam: Thank you, Juanjo. The truth is that every night the miracle happens, and that little time together revives us, takes us out of the atmosphere of death that surrounds us. So let us joyfully contemplate the Lord today, calm in front of his friend Martha who reproaches him restlessly. How would Jesus have looked at her that day to make her a saint? Martha was a friend of Jesus, like us, and that friendship sustains us, encourages us, beautifies you, beautifies our marriage, makes me smile when I look at you…
Juanjo: Believing in Christ changes you, changes me, changes everything.

Mother,
We remember you rejoicing, visiting your relative Isabel and uttering that phrase: “My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.” May ours also rejoice alongside yours. Hallelujah!

Poor Love. Reflection for Married Couples. John 6, 1-15

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GOSPEL

The feeding of the five thousand
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John 
Jn 6:1-15

Jesus went off to the other side of the Sea of Galilee – or of Tiberias – and a large crowd followed him, impressed by the signs he gave by curing the sick. Jesus climbed the hillside, and sat down there with his disciples. It was shortly before the Jewish feast of Passover.
  Looking up, Jesus saw the crowds approaching and said to Philip, ‘Where can we buy some bread for these people to eat?’ He only said this to test Philip; he himself knew exactly what he was going to do. Philip answered, ‘Two hundred denarii would only buy enough to give them a small piece each.’ One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said, ‘There is a small boy here with five barley loaves and two fish; but what is that between so many?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Make the people sit down.’ There was plenty of grass there, and as many as five thousand men sat down. Then Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and gave them out to all who were sitting ready; he then did the same with the fish, giving out as much as was wanted. When they had eaten enough he said to the disciples, ‘Pick up the pieces left over, so that nothing gets wasted.’ So they picked them up, and filled twelve hampers with scraps left over from the meal of five barley loaves. The people, seeing this sign that he had given, said, ‘This really is the prophet who is to come into the world.’ Jesus, who could see they were about to come and take him by force and make him king, escaped back to the hills by himself.

The Gospel of the Lord

Poor Love

The atmosphere between us might be strained. I may have been negatively affected by a multitude of situations crowding my mind, which I obsessively mull over: “It’s not fair for them to say that about me,” “How can they see me so negatively?” “They don’t appreciate anything I do,” and so on.
It is time to stop focusing on myself and lamenting, and instead turn to Divine Abundance. He will lift me out of this darkness and satisfy me with His love if I offer up ours. It is time to move beyond myself and into you. I contemplate God, His greatness, and serve my spouse, cherishing all the good and beautiful things God has given me in them.

Applied to Married Life:

John: We’ve been spiralling into a dark place that blinds and saddens me, making it hard to see the light. But Jesus sees our hunger and will do whatever it takes to satisfy it.
Theresa: Perhaps it’s time to lie down on the grass and wait for Him to fill the void in our hearts with His power. It’s time to look to the heavens and ask Him, with humility: “Lord, we can’t do this on our own. I don’t have what it takes to fill my spouse’s heart. My poor attempts at love don’t satisfy. But I will do my best. Help me.”
John: This is something supernatural, and therefore, hard for me to grasp, but I will try. I will go to confession, contemplate God and His greatness, all the good He has given me. I will reflect on your gifts, my wife. How wonderful you are, how hard you work, how you help me be more sociable, how dedicated you are… I ask the Lord for help, do my part, and wait for His assistance to see all the good and beauty in you, my wife, and in our marriage. He always blesses us.

Mother,

Today I join the young boy, who seemed to have very little to offer with his meal; yet when he gave what he had to Jesus, it fed a multitude. Mother, I give you my weakness, my inability to love as I should… offer it to Jesus for me, because I do love the spouse you have given me, but I want to do it better. Let none of what you give me be lost, Mother, protect it. Praise be to the Lord for His abundant generosity. Amen.