The Seven Holy Youths of Ephesus; Holy Venerable-Martyr Eudocia (98-117)
Dormition Fast
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1 Corinthians 1:3-9; Matthew 19:3-12
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
Today’s gospel contains two calls to a higher way of living: Jesus sets the highest standard for marital commitment, and praises celibacy for the kingdom’s sake. But the third call to holiness is also hidden in this passage, in Jesus’s redefinition of adultery.
According to the Old Testament Law, adultery was sexual intercourse between a married woman and any man other than her husband. There were other sexual sins, but for an act to be considered adultery, the most serious offence, it had to involve a married woman. A husband might visit a prostitute or take a concubine, and this might have its own penalties according to the Law, but only an unfaithful married woman and her male partner were guilty of adultery.
Today, however, Jesus says that a husband who divorces his wife and marries another woman (either married or unmarried – he doesn’t specify, and it doesn’t seem to matter) has committed adultery. Jesus calls his disciples to a new standard of holiness, to live as a new creation, like Adam and Eve “in the beginning,” before the fall. Christians, both men and women, are called to live in commitment and love; and if they are married, to give their romantic and sexual love exclusively to their spouse. The old approach that treated men differently than women, that said “boys will be boys,” is gone – marriage has been transformed into a life of mutual love and commitment that leads, with God’s grace, all the way to his kingdom.