As I reflected on today’s readings, my position as marriage preparation facilitator brought insights into today’s theme of faithful covenant.

In our Judeo-Christian tradition, marriage is a life-time commitment in a covenant to and with one another. Therefore, programs such as FOCCUS (Facilitating Open Couple Communication, Understanding and Study) provide a means to further the understanding of one another in order to truly enter into such a momentous promise. As Catholics since the twelfth century have believed, this celebration of covenant is also a sacrament between the husband and wife because it is not only proclaiming a love commitment/relationship between the spouses for the whole of their lives. It also means that the husband and wife’s living out of this covenant promise witnesses/signifies God’s ongoing love and covenant with us, as well as Christ’s faithful presence in the faithful as the living body of Christ on earth.

What an awesome promise a couple makes on their wedding day – not only to and with one another, but also to the community…to be faithful to one another and to live their lives together as images of God’s faithful love and covenant with us!

Today’s scriptures can be read with this in mind.

Joshua, nearing the end of his life, is attempting to impress upon his community the tremendous love, care and concern that God has for the people by living out a faithful covenant of ongoing presence throughout their history.

The psalmist echoes the refrain of God’s faithfulness in Psalm 136 over and over again, “Give thanks to God who is good, for God’s steadfast love endures forever.”

In Matthew’s gospel (sort of ‘coming in the back door at the meaning of covenant), Jesus responds to the Pharisees’ question regarding divorce by saying that , ‘…Because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses allowed divorce but from the beginning it was not so…. Not all can accept this word…Whoever can accept this ought to accept this.’ (However not all marriages are signs of God’s faithful covenant and may end in divorce or separation. In fact, the US Bishops Pastoral, ‘When I Call For Help’ updated in 2002, addresses the horror of domestic violence and assures that the teaching on the permanence of marriage does not require individuals to stay in an abusive relationship.)

It is evident to me that the scriptures are calling me/us to reflect on God’s ever present love, concern and faithfulness in our lives.

But how do we know/recognize God’s faithfulness in our daily lives? I can ‘know’ that God is present to me, but until I take the time to actually relate to/ be present to God…I really am not/cannot be in relationship/covenant with God. It is very much like having a friend or family member present, but we are not ‘tuned in’ or attentive to her/him.

So…when I’m on retreat…I really am able to take the time to be open/present to God’s movement in my day. The challenge however is in the nitty-gritty of everyday life with so many ‘have to’s, lists and demands on my time.

My prayer for each of us today is that we take that extra little ‘break’ in our day to just ‘be’ with/for God in our midst so that we can catch a glimpse of that wonderfully faithful loving God that we’ve been reminded to ‘tune’ into through today’s readings.