PRAYER MOMENT
Saturday
25 October 2014
FOR
LOVE IS STRONG AS DEATH
Pause. Be still in God’s presence.
Reading: “Set me like a seal on your
heart, like seal on your arm. For love is strong as death, passion as
relentless as Sheol. The flash of it is a flash of fire, a flame of Yahweh
himself.” (Song of Songs 8:6-7)
Reflection. We have a wedding today in
our parish. Marriage has been there since the beginning but we can say, as with
so much of our human story, it has gone through many stages. Desire and passion
have always been there but marriage was not always a free contract that two
people entered without pressure from society and family. Sometimes the emphasis
has been on a traditional and social convention. Even today we have “arranged”
marriages, which is not to say they are not often happy. But “love as strong as
death” has not always been the mark of marriage. The marriage that fills us
with awe is the one where husband and wife really live for one another and
their children, “in season and out of season”, “in sickness and in health,”
when things go well and when they do not go well. The passion that is “a flash
of fire” is lived out daily in forgiveness and fidelity, graduating to a state
beyond words and gestures to a deep union – something like our relationship
with God.
Prayer. Lord, help us and all
married couples to live the fullness of our calling, manifesting the strength
of your relationship with us. Amen..
David Harold-Barry SJ
No comments:
Post a Comment