Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem. While he is teaching the people, some Pharisees just want to test him, they just want to see him disgraced in front of everyone.

 

Jesus is heading towards Jerusalem. While he is teaching the people, some Pharisees just want to test him, they just want to see him disgraced in front of everyone. Some still act today in the same way as these Pharisees did: they do not listen to the Word of God, but, feeling that they are the masters of the Almighty’s thoughts, they try to set traps for those who are truly servants of the Word. Since there will always be enemies of goodness, it is up to today’s disciple, as he did yesterday, to prepare himself well, to be a person of true prayer, to be attentive to listening to the Word of God, to be a true friend of the Lord in everything, in order to give those interested an ever deeper answer to the truth.

2. Some Pharisees present to Jesus the case of divorce, permitted by Moses. Jesus gives them an answer, showing them that the problem is not in what Moses did, but in the people themselves, because of their hardness of heart, incapable of opening themselves completely to God. As the new Moses, Jesus reveals to them the truth of marriage according to God’s initial thought. Man and woman were united by God, so it is not up to man to separate them. Marriage is part of God's plans, it is a project of the Almighty. No one should think of marriage in terms of their own satisfaction, because in doing so, they would be going against a project that is superior to them. 3. Two things are important here: unity, established by God himself, based on love; and the issue of pleasure. The reality of marriage, based on God's will, is based exclusively on love. For this very reason, it must necessarily be true and open to the will of the Lord. In other words, love, truth and faith must be the basis and horizon of every marital relationship. Only from there can the essence of marriage, such as fidelity, unity and fruitfulness, be lived with dignity. The great problem that arises in the world of marriage is the inability of many to overcome their own selfishness and lack of faith. Married life often becomes a terrible burden, because many people only want to live their own pleasurable life, making the other person an object of continuous pleasure and, furthermore, enslaving the other person as if he or she were a mere object of pleasure or of unhealthy personal excesses. Added to this is the issue of lack of faith, of the inability to renounce oneself, seeing the mystery of God's love, which empties itself for the good of the other. 4. The couple needs to learn the language of love, but of love as self-giving, that is, giving oneself for the good of the other. Love is not sexual pleasure, it is not feeling, it is not affection, but the giving of oneself, the giving of one's life, even in a context of enmity. Even if there is no longer affection, it is up to those who truly have faith to make a gift of themselves, in order to win the other person over to a life of communion with themselves and with God. Love goes beyond the physical limits of bodily presence. Even if a life of physical communion is no longer possible, those who love remain united in the bond established by God, because they truly love, because they have faith, because they have discovered the dignity of the other. Of course, this is a desert, but it can certainly be overcome. Marriage requires conviction in the reciprocity of love and absolute surrender of oneself to God's plan. Divorce constitutes a no to God and to human dignity. 5. The family is a creation of God. Anything that stands in its way must be immediately rejected. God wanted man and woman to be united in order to build a true home. The world thinks differently, wants something else, follows another idea that falsifies God's Law. For example, it rejects children, imposing inhumane and deceptive rules. Jesus, in turn, welcomes the little ones, shows them their value and importance, and places them in the care of his disciples, who had to learn this great lesson from the Master. The disciples' reprimanding gesture indicates an action of protection for the Master, so that he would not be bothered by the parents of those children. This attitude is a reflection of the society of Israel and of all of Palestine. It is also a reflection of those who are unable to see people in their needs, values ​​and dignity. Such action privileges authorities, people of renown, social status, powerful men and women and, today, those who are considered in their ideologies. 6. Jesus is outraged by this attitude, because a disciple of His should never accept a mentality within the standards of worldliness, which ignores children, the poor and those who live ordinary lives, not involved in anything that gives them fame and applause. This is the physiognomy of the economic system: the poor, children and the elderly are problems, because they produce nothing, they only consume. The objective of the system is PROFIT. Those who only cause expenses are marginalized.