I gave you a land where you never toiled, you live in towns you never built; you eat now from vineyards and olive-groves you never planted.”’
The Lord has blessed me all my life. I was a single man until the tender age of 55. I dated my future wife, Anna, for about a year. She was not anxious to date. Her husband had died in 1995 and we met in the fall of 1998. Anna was a single mother of a head strong teenager. She had her hands full.
Her daughter, now our daughter, said, “Mother go out with the man. You don’t have to marry him.” Well she did marry me and my wedding day is still the happiest day of my life.
To every person on earth there are different seasons. Sometimes those seasons are as a single person and sometimes married person. As a baby we are fed and clothed by our parents. As an older child we do what our parents tell us to do or else. As an adult we try to do what God wants us to do and sometimes we fail.
Our first reading from Joshua speaks of the graces and gifts we receive from God as totally undeserved. If you continue reading Joshua 24:14-15 “Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve him completely and sincerely. Cast out the gods your ancestors served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. If it is displeasing to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites in whose country you are dwelling. As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”
The first reading describes what God has done for us. The important message that Joshua is speaking in the continuation of scripture is service to the Lord. Many years before I met my bride of 23 years, I was in love with another girl named, Sandy. We were young enough that I wanted children, but she didn’t. This is why our relationship never progressed to marriage because we had different ideas of what the Lord wanted for our lives. She worked for the Department of Human services and her patients were children. It was her way of serving the Lord .She took care of those children. She felt that these children were her children. Children of her own would have taken away energy from that mission. If we fast forward 25 years in time, Anna and Sandy who are both nurses became comrades in service as “Parish Nurses” in their different churches.
Think about all the good that God has done for you. Give thanks as Joshua says but we also have to give back. The old saying that love isn’t love until it is given away and is still true. In our Gospel today Jesus speaks of marriage, divorce and the single life. Jesus speaks of how it is supposed to work, they are no longer two, but one flesh. The reality of divorce come from physical and mental abuse. It comes as a result of other sins such as addiction. If you get the chance, view the old movie, “The Days of Wine and Roses”.
Catholic priests get criticized for not being married and trying to council someone who is. Most people forget that Priest, Brothers and Nuns came from families, and they have experienced all the troubles that come from marriage infidelity. Being single isn’t easy either. I was single for 55 years before I married my bride, Anna. I always wanted to marry but I was never lonely. Anna and I have been married 23 years.
Jesus says, Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so;
some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.” Divorce does not make you a bad person. Single is not bad. Marriage takes work. This scripture speaks to me that we need to accept whatever station in life that we find ourselves. God has given us a gift. Our marital status is an opportunity to serve God and others.
God Love You Always
Bob Burford
PS: Please Pray for Cancer victims and their caregivers. Pray for the conversion of Russia and the salvation of the Ukrainian and Russian people and their soldiers. Pray for peace!
