FRIDAY OF THE SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME - Gospel (Mark 10:1-12) - THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

“What God has joined together, no human being must separate.” (Mk 10:9)

FIRST READING - Sirach 6:5-17

A reading from the Book of Sirach

A kind mouth multiplies friends and appeases enemies,

and gracious lips prompt friendly greetings.

Let your acquaintances be many,

but one in a thousand your confidant.

When you gain a friend, first test him,

and be not too ready to trust him.

For one sort is a friend when it suits him,

but he will not be with you in time of distress.

Another is a friend who becomes an enemy,

and tells of the quarrel to your shame.

Another is a friend, a boon companion,

who will not be with you when sorrow comes.

When things go well, he is your other self,

and lords it over your servants;

But if you are brought low, he turns against you

and avoids meeting you.

Keep away from your enemies;

be on your guard with your friends.

A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter;

he who finds one finds a treasure.

A faithful friend is beyond price,

no sum can balance his worth.

A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy,

such as he who fears God finds;

For he who fears God behaves accordingly,

and his friend will be like himself.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY - Mark 10:1-12

From the Gospel according to Mark

Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan.

Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom,

he again taught them.

The Pharisees approached him and asked,

""Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?""

They were testing him.

He said to them in reply, ""What did Moses command you?""

They replied,

""Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce

and dismiss her.""

But Jesus told them,

""Because of the hardness of your hearts

he wrote you this commandment.

But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother

and be joined to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.

So they are no longer two but one flesh.

Therefore what God has joined together,

no human being must separate.""

In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.

He said to them,

“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another

commits adultery against her;

and if she divorces her husband and marries another,

she commits adultery.”

FRIDAY OF THE SEVENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME - Gospel (Mark 10:1-12)

THE WORD OF GOD FOR EVERYONE

Dear People of God,

Today's Word of God teaches all those who are living a married life to be faithful to each other, to be monogamous, and to keep their covenant with each other for life. Only then will they please God and be blessed by Him.

For God, everything that He has spoken and joined together can never be changed or separated. When a couple comes before God to sign the marriage covenant, they become one flesh. This originates from The Mystery of God's Will when He created mankind.

God the Father created woman to be with man,

“This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called woman, for out of man this one has been taken.”

When a man and a woman are joined by God, He will bless their love. They must love each other for life, be tolerant of each other, forgive each other, sacrifice for each other, and accept each other with all their weaknesses and mistakes so that together they can become holy right here on earth, worship and love God above all things, and cooperate with Him in giving birth to children and raising them according to His will.

The Bible tells us that, in the beginning, when people had not yet sinned, they lived in harmony with each other, loved each other, joyfully devoted themselves to each other, and always had God in their midst. After Satan secretly intervened in our lives, we fell into sin and disobeyed God, and then there was separation, quarreling with each other, blaming each other, and alienating ourselves from God and each other.

We followed Satan's instigation and committed many sins. Through the Work of Sanctification of the Holy Spirit, God made known to humanity that the tempter is increasingly cunning in his sophisticated acts. They attacked the moral foundation of families by openly creating marriage institutions that were different from the natural order that God created in the beginning. They break and destroy the bond of monogamy, creating the social evil of divorce and separation in families.

Why is this so? Jesus explained in the Gospel: '"Because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses wrote you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”

And because it is we who have fallen into passions, especially passion of lusts, opening the door for demons of lust to attack our souls and control us to sell our souls to the Satan of lust, and fall into the fire of eternal lust with them, right in this earthly life.

God understands the suffering of many souls and families that are under the domination of Satan. He sent His Son into the world to save humanity, cleanse humanity from original sin, and to perfect the Law, especially the law of marriage and family. He calls us to live in close union with each other, never to be separated.

When Jesus ascended to Heaven, He gave the Holy Spirit to the Church, and now, the Holy Spirit is renewing the face of human families through His activity, with His visible and invisible presence in the Plan of The House of God the Father. Every family must return to God the Father and listen to His teachings.

With the Real Word of God written through the hands of Angel Thiên Thương, we will be taught by God in every detail. The written Word has the power to pull people away from the ignorance path of Satan, and the Word has the power to help people acknowledge our sins and repent.

Come to God and plead for His mercy to forgive our sins so that He can drive Satan out of our souls and out of our families. Ask Him to grant us the grace of faith and healing, healing all families that have been separated by Satan. Satan has caused families to break apart, husband and wife to divorce each other to find someone else to be their husband and wife, or seek someone outside of their marriages.

It also leads us to live freely outside of marriage, especially in same-sex marriages. God the Father is not pleased with this, but Satan is.

Through today's Gospel, once again, God calls on all of us to convert our hearts and return to the original law of marriage and family that God created, which is monogamy: with the purpose of marriage being for husband and wife to love each other for life (see Genesis 2:24), to give birth to children (see Genesis 1:28), and to raise children according to God's way.

Thanks be to God. Amen