14 August 2022
Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Christ accepted that he would be a source of division for families. He prophesied that “a father will be divided against his son and a son against his father, a mother against her daughter and a daughter against her mother” (Luke 12:53). He teaches us that union with God is a greater good than the integrity of a natural family structure. A Christian disciple, then, must be willing to divide his family, if need be, for a greater good, rather than to adhere completely to a family that pulls him away from his Father in heaven. Christ and his apostles sealed their commitment to this teaching by dedicating themselves to lives of sexual continence.
Six centuries before Christ, Jeremiah, likewise, embraced continence for the sake of a greater good. He made prophetic calls for profound civic reform which were not well received by his contemporaries. Perhaps it was their concern for the stability of their family structures that stopped up their ears. They refused to hear that the structures they had put in place were failing. Instead, taking strength in their popularity, they obtained the king’s permission to dispose of the troublesome Jeremiah by dropping him to the bottom of a muddy cistern where he would surely perish (Cf. Jeremiah 38). Jeremiah, however, was saved from the cistern by Ebed-Melech, who was, himself, celibate as well.
In the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius Loyola strongly praises sexual continence (SpEx 356). Reflecting on the examples of Christ, the apostles, Jeremiah and Ebed-Melech, today’s practitioners of Ignatian spirituality should consider embracing this discipline for themselves, whether on a temporary or permanent basis.