Reflection
One of my favorite movies is The Breakfast Club. This 80s
film showed the interactions among five high-school kids during Saturday detention. At one point, during a sharing about how
parents inflict punishments and penalties, the Emilio Estevez character asks
the Ally Sheedy character “What do they do to you.” The girl replies, “They ignore me.” How devastatingly true and unfortunate for
many teens, to be ignored, discounted, dismissed.
For us too, we have had experiences where we have chosen to
ignore a person, a relative, a group of people, perhaps an entire gender. To some degree, have you chosen to “dismiss”
someone simply because the relationship is inconvenient or too challenging? This was the case in the time of Jesus.
Apparently, the Mosaic law had been altered to allow Jews a
divorce – the dismissal of a person – simply because the husbands’ hearts were
too hard, small, and shallow.
Self-absorbed perhaps. In response, Jesus hearkens
back to the earlier time at Creation when God saw the true capacity of human
life and love. “No human being must
separate.” That is exactly how the
kingdom of God will look: all will be
joined together in the unity of the Holy Spirit, in Christ, in praise of the
Father. This Trinitarian relationship
lasts forever.
So, Jesus places that
challenge to the Pharisees and to us in our personal and earthly relationships. Do not seek for dismissal of another, but
strive for deeper commitments that reveal the self-less self-giving love that Jesus
would later show. Strive
for the divine-like. Practice a love
that is “for keeps” and committed to Christ the ever faithful Companion. Whether in marriage, family challenges, tough neighborhoods,
warring countries, or painful social encounters, Jesus offers you a daunting test as well: no
human being must separate. Can you ignore that invitation?
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