Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Chrysostom, Yet again

“Say to [your wife], ‘Our time here is brief and fleeting, but if we are pleasing to God, we can exchange this life for the Kingdom to come. Then we will be perfectly one, both with Christ and each other, and our pleasure will know no bounds. I value your love above all things, and nothing would be so bitter or painful to me as our being at odds with each other. Even if I lose everything, any affliction is tolerable if you will be true to me.’”

- from Homily XX on Ephesians

Once again, St. John captures the spiritual core of the marriage relationship, way better than you might ever expect from a celibate bishop who lived 16 centuries ago.

And he even manages to address a ‘concern’ of mine, that I blogged about, once upon a time. . .

And besides all that, the concept of ‘even if I lose everything’ is much more, uh, current than I might wish it were. . .

6 comments:

Sailor said...

One thing I love about seeing a new post from you pop up, is that so very often it's a celebration of your life with Molly.

You are truly one of the most blessed people I "know", and I am so glad you share some parts of yourself here.

Now, git off'n the 'puter, and go hug her!

lime said...

you and molly are truly blessed.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Sailor on this one. Go Hug Molly.

Desmond Jones said...

Sailor - (*shuffling feet*) Aw, shucks.

And, Molly has been duly hugged. . . ;)

Lime - Thanks.

Yeef; I didn't think this post was a particularly sappy one, but that seems to be the general tone of the comments. . .

SM - Is there some perceived hug-deficit goin' on here? But, Molly was properly gratified that so many of my blog-friends were urging me to hug her. We really like hugging each other. . .

flutterby said...

Sometimes I think it may be easier for the celibate to wax poetic about love and commitment. They write of Ideals and we live in the Reality.

But it's good to be reminded of the Ideal, isn't it!?

Glad there were hugs all around!

Desmond Jones said...

Interesting thought, Flutter. Of course, even the celibates had moms and dads, and probably brothers and sisters, with nieces and nephews, so it's not like they're totally living in 'Ideal World'.

But then, Catholics are famous for saying, "He no play-a da game, he no make-a da rules." . . .

(*sigh*)