Today, we speak about the infinite dignity of being a child of God, so loved by our Heavenly Father. Both husbands and wives have a responsibility to lead one another into the kingdom of our God, our Heavenly Father.
It is through the love of Christ that they respect and honor one another so as they lead one other into a deeper relationship with the Lord their God, much like their marital bonds in which they share.
All of us, whether single or married, are called to grow in our intimacy and relationship with the Lord, our God, as we lead others into that same spiritual growth.
In order to accelerate that growth, we must constantly dwell on the word and will of God, our Heavenly Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, and apply the love that we have received from Him into kingdom building by belonging to communities of love. Amen.
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First reading
Ephesians 5:21-33 ·
Give way to one another in obedience to Christ
Give way to one another in obedience to Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything. Husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself for her to make her holy. He made her clean by washing her in water with a form of words, so that when he took her to himself she would be glorious, with no speck or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and faultless. In the same way, husbands must love their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks after it; and that is the way Christ treats the Church, because it is his body – and we are its living parts. For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body. This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church. To sum up; you too, each one of you, must love his wife as he loves himself; and let every wife respect her husband.
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Gospel
Luke 13:18-21
The kingdom of God is like the yeast that leavened three measures of flour
Jesus said, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it with? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw into his garden: it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air sheltered in its branches.’
Another thing he said, ‘What shall I compare the kingdom of God with? It is like the yeast a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour till it was leavened all through.’
