Vol.5 No.4

Vol.5 No.4

27th Sunday Ordinary Time—
Summary of Reflection given by Fr. Leo Patalinhug

Mark’s Gospel repeats Jesus’ words on marriage, divorce and adultery—referring to the Genesis story of creation of man and woman.
Fr. Leo’s insights into marriage and divorce made the message of Mark simple, practical, and to the point. Fr. Leo began with an appeal to us to give marriage a better image.
• There are not two in marriage, but rather, there are three:  husband, wife and Holy Spirit.
•  Do we see God in our spouse?
• Finding time to enjoy one another by going on monthly dinner dates (month-versary) helps to keep a marriage strong.
• In marriage, we make a decision— the Latin root of the word decision means “to cut off”or “kill”—decido—to cut off other possibilities.  For example, spouses cut off relationships with others when they marries—there is no possibility of other relationships—spouses “kill” the possibility, in other words.
• Marriage is about sacrifice.  It is about starving and feasting. We are willing to starve at times, and at other times, we find joy in the feast of marital love.
• In marriage we receive three rings:  the engagement ring, the marriage ring and we also receive and accept suffer-ing.
• Apart from the Trinitarian faith, represented in the Crucifix, an authentic understand of marriage cannot be understood or embraced.
• The image of marriage is important, because marriage is an image of Christ’s relationship with his Church.

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