GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to John 17:1-11a

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said,

“Father, the hour has come.

Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you,

just as you gave him authority over all people,

so that your son may give eternal life to all you gave him.

Now this is eternal life,

that they should know you, the only true God,

and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ.

I glorified you on earth

by accomplishing the work that you gave me to do.

Now glorify me, Father, with you,

with the glory that I had with you before the world began.

“I revealed your name to those whom you gave me out of the world.

They belonged to you, and you gave them to me,

and they have kept your word.

Now they know that everything you gave me is from you,

because the words you gave to me I have given to them,

and they accepted them and truly understood that I came from you,

and they have believed that you sent me.

I pray for them.

I do not pray for the world but for the ones you have given me,

because they are yours, and everything of mine is yours

and everything of yours is mine,

and I have been glorified in them.

And now I will no longer be in the world,

but they are in the world, while I am coming to you.”

The word of the Lord

 

Everything of mine is yours?

Jesus, lifting His eyes to heaven, says to the Father: “All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine.” Jesus reveals to us, and draws us into, the mystery of His communion of love with the Father in the Holy Spirit. In God nothing is held back, nothing is reserved; everything is gift, communion, and total self‑giving. This is how God loves. And in His creative design, God instituted marriage so that it might be the visible sign of this invisible love.

This is why spouses are called, in the image of Trinitarian love, to say to one another truthfully and as Christ does: “All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine.” Not only with words, but by making it life: my time is yours, my body is yours, my talents are yours, my money, my plans, my weariness, my joys, my future — even my wounds — because I no longer belong to myself. “I give myself to you…” May our words not be carried away by the wind. May we fulfil that promise in its fullness. For conjugal love is not simply a harmonious coexistence, but the total gift of oneself in the image of God.

Applied to married life

Martha and Jon share a joint account as well as personal ones. One day, Jon made some purchases using the joint account, and Martha reproached him, saying that those things should have been paid with his own money, not with the money belonging to both of them.

Martha: Jon, I don’t understand why the whole money thing upset you so much. You’ve been a bit sensitive about this lately.

Jon: It’s not just the money, Martha… It’s that I feel as though each of us still has “our own life”. Your things–my things, your decisions–my decisions, your car–my car… I don’t know, Martha. As we go through the catechesis, I see more clearly that we need to make some decisions. Don’t you think so too?

Martha: Well, Jon, I won’t deny that every time we hear the message about how to build a marriage, things come to mind that we need to change if we want to live what we experienced on the retreat. But to be honest, I end up looking the other way.

Jon: I’ve done that for a long time too, but this morning, during prayer, a phrase from Jesus came to me: “All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine.” And I’m certain the Lord is calling us to that. We want a marriage in communion… but without giving everything. Not just money, of course — we don’t give our way of raising the children, or how we organise the house… so many things.

Martha: I think the devil really does tempt me a lot, Jon. He makes me think that if I give myself completely, I’ll end up losing out… and then I complain that we’re not fully united.

Jon: Exactly, Martha. We want communion, but without putting everything on the line. We give ourselves halfway, and with lots of conditions.

Martha: Oh Jon… we’ve got so much to do… it makes me feel dizzy.

Jon: To begin with, the first thing is to make the decision to do it. But Martha, even though I know it will be hard for me, I want to be able to look you in the eyes and say: “All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine.”

Yet man, wounded by sin, tends to keep for himself treasures he is unwilling to share: his intimacy, his money, his time; at most he gives a part and keeps another back, thereby breaking the sacramental sign and weakening communion. Perhaps today the Holy Spirit is showing us precisely this: which part of ourselves we still refuse to give. For He can only unite what we offer.

Ask yourself with sincerity and courage: can I say to my spouse today, “All that is mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine”? If we have not yet reached that point, let us ask the Holy Spirit for the grace to give ourselves completely as Christ does — the whole of ourselves, in order to receive the whole — so that our marriage may glorify the Father, showing the world how God loves.

 

 

Mother,

Teach us to be a faithful reflection of God’s love, as you are. Blessed be the Lord!