Today’s readings from the gospel are about two married couples, one from the Old Testament, Manoah and his wife, and the New Testament, Zechariah and Elizabeth. Both couples had a common issue in that the wife was barren and in her old age. These marriages have something in common with my and many other Christian marriages. They were trinitarian – an intimate relationship between a man and a woman and God and God the Father’s relationship with the Son and Holy Spirit.
My wife and I had other issues than those spoken in the gospel today, but we all pray to God, the third person in our relationship. He answers our prayer to further his loving will for all of humankind. How we are part of salvation history may be a mystery and not as evident as the couple mentioned in the bible. But I sometimes glimpse it when I see my children and grandchildren. I see it in the way my growing family touches other people. They bring joy and hope to many others.
Marriage is a special relationship with its sacramental grace, but we all have relationships with others. How do we see God in all our other relationships? We can do this by serving others we meet, perhaps with a smile and kind words. We are ignoring our selfish desires and looking to serve their desires and using our lives as an example for others. We never know who is looking on when we do our work with our God-given gifts to the best of our ability.
Let Us Pray:
Enter into the interior of our Lord, into his love, if you want to have an interior life. Remain in recollection, enter more deeply into God, pass up created things, and leave everything to enter into our Lord. That’s the way – there is no other. (Meditation of Saint Peter Julian Eymard, A Thought per Day, Selected texts chosen by Sister Suzanne Aylwin, sss)