“Zelmyra and Herbert Fisher broke The Guinness World Record for the longest marriage. They were 
married on May 13, 1924. In 2008, they earned the record for longest marriage at 84 years. In 2011, Herbert passed away at 105, and a few years later in 2013, Zelmyra followed at 105 years old as well. When Herbert passed, the couple had been married for 87 years. Before their death, they were interviewed about their secrets to everlasting love…and their answers are astoundingly simple.”
Here are two that stuck out for me:
“Remember marriage is not a contest, never keep a score. God has put the two of you together on the same team to win.”
“We are both Christians and believe in God. Marriage is a commitment to the Lord.We pray with and for each other every day.”
When I looked at today’s readings my first thought was how different these are!! Not related at all. Ezekiel talks about how evil Israel was. So bad that Israel is compared to a harlot!! They entered the land of Canaan with nothing. The people who were already there before Abraham arrived (Ezekiel uses the Amorites and Hittites as examples of the tribes in Canaan at the time) , were idolaters. They worshiped and sacrificed their children to their gods. God separated Israel from the Canaanites and raised them up to be His people. But they were ungrateful and stubborn turning their backs on God and assuming the evil ways of the people in their midst.
Matthew tells the story of how the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking him about divorce. During Jesus’ time marriage was a sacred institution that was highly valued. Unfortunately, women were not. As a consequence, men could write a letter of divorce for almost any reason. If the wife ruined dinner, did not have her hair kept, spoke with other men in public or spoke out against her husband’s parents the husband had the right to unilaterally divorce his wife. This was Mosaic law instituted at Sinai.
But Christ, as he so often did, raised the bar. God created us as man and woman. Different but destined for each other. We were to join together and not divided by anyone for any reason unless the marriage was deemed unlawful.
So how were these readings the same? Because of the word COVENANT. The world sees marriages as a civil contract. Able to be broken for many, many reasons. A marriage CONTRACT is a legal document which can be terminated by either party….for almost any reason.
But a Christian marriage is a covenant. An agreement that lasts until the death of one of the parties. Not to be entered into lightly and, once made, is truly forever. And in Ezekiel the reading concludes with God explaining, after giving Israel a tongue lashing for all its sins, that they will always be His people…no matter what. His covenant with Israel will never end. Though he may get angry with them, correct them, give them hardships to help bring them back to Him, he will never leave them.
So we should look at being faithful not to just our spouse, but more importantly, to marriage itself. People fail. They sin. Putting all your faith in a person, even your spouse, will ultimately result in disappointment. But faith in the covenant cannot fail. It will never dissolve until death. As Zelmyra and Herbert also replied when asked about what made their marriage successful, “Divorce just was not an option”.
And this is the promise we received from God through His Son. We will never be left alone. There is nothing we can do that is so bad that God would break the covenant He made with us when Christ allowed Himself to be led to the cross. All we have to do is acknowledge our guilt and humbly and sincerely ask for His forgiveness. He took Israel back after they sacrificed their own children. What can we do to top that?!
And we also have the promise of God’s covenant made that day on Calvary and we are reminded of it at every Mass when the priest turns simple bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood. We just have to say “Yes” as Mary said “Yes” to God’s messenger.
By the way…the shortest marriage? A Dubai man walked out of the courtroom immediately after the ceremony and into another courtroom to get a divorce decree. Apparently the bride’s Father made the man promise that he would allow his wife to work after the marriage. The groom had second (seconds?) thoughts about that promise once the vows were made.
Note to our readers: Dr. Carolyn Berghuis is taking a short sabbatical to finish a research paper on the church mystics, but please be assured she is continuing to pray for the Global Light for Christ Community, and your intentions during this time.
GLOBAL LIGHT FOR CHRIST (GLFC)
We are a community striving to grow in love. If you are seeking to become healed of wounds that can only be healed through the love of Jesus please leave your petition below. We always strive to more fully surrender to the will of our Triune God and together we can make a difference in the world. Let’s pray that we all witness God’s love in the world.
