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Showing posts with the label The Eucharist and Marital love

Yoked to Jesus

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“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” †  Mathew 11: 28-30  What is the labour and burden that Jesus is asking me to deal with? Perhaps I have to let go of the compulsive burden (or is it a sort of entitlement?) that my spouse and children should choose a spiritual path that I know to be right. Jesus accompanied Judas Iscariot to the very end but never deprived him of his freedom to choose his own destiny. Jesus on the other hand, uninterrupted by Judas's choice to reject him, continues to accomplish his mission. He does become a victim of Judas's betrayal but he seldom takes on the victim's identity. In divine wisdom, Jesus chooses to die in our place (and that of Judas) in a redeeming act of love. Rather than being compelled to fix those whom God has entrusted to my headship by m

The Eucharist and Marital love

The call to deny our self, take up the cross and follow Jesus must resound in our ears day and night, no matter what vocation we are chosen to lead. This is inevitably an invitation to the peak of Calvary to empty our self and give life to the other just as the Eucharist cures our soul and gives new life. Christ sealed the marital covenant with his church, by his self gift of the Eucharist [His body and blood], on the altar of the cross, embracing us into a one flesh union with Him. We who are united in the marital covenant, sealed by His blood [sacramentally] too become one flesh with our spouse, where the alter is - the bed. The sealant that consummates the marital covenant is sexual love, just as Eucharist is in the former. This union indeed is modeled on the mystery of the Holy Trinity. We too are made partakers of this mystery as Christ unites us to His body. The covenant Jesus sealed on the cross with us [the church] is renewed in every celebration of the Eucharist [Holy Mas