Accepting Intolerable Language
Yesterday I received an email from a reader that struck a chord with me. I reproduce it here, with her permission, and follow up with my thoughts.
The words of this weekend’s Gospel that reverberated within me since reading the text on Thursday were: “This is intolerable language”! The second reading Ephesians 5: 21-32 text has been for me the “intolerable language”! But on Saturday as I read it I gradually began to experience the “mystery” of its “many implications”. I thought of the challenges of my children and their spouses.
This “intolerable language” can only be understood and accepted in the gradual, unfolding understanding of loving one’s God chosen spouse in the way Christ is to the Church - His Body.
In the Gospel John 6: 60-69 many of Jesus followers left him because they thought his language ‘intolerable’. Like our reader discovered, the sometimes intolerable language of scripture can only be understood and accepted in the gradual, unfolding of the mystery (of God’s love) and its many implications.
It beckons us into a deeper journey of faith. The gradual unfolding she describes mirrors the process we all undergo when confronted with the difficult teachings of Christ.
Reading the Gospel is not a path of instant understanding, but one of patience, trust, and the willingness to wrestle with the mystery of God’s love. Her insight into Ephesians 5, and the profound call to love one's spouse as Christ loves the Church, reveals how these ‘intolerable’ words are not meant to be brushed aside, but rather lived into with the fullness of our being.
The challenge is to grasp the mystery of the depth of God’s love for us and its implications. The disciples and I dare say us find it difficult to accept the intimacy of relationship that Jesus is calling us to. That intimacy moves us beyond the superficial to embrace the sacrificial, transformative love, to true communion with God and each other.
It calls us to move beyond our initial resistance, to embrace the discomfort, and to allow the mystery of God's love to unfold within us. As we continue to walk this path, we discover that what once seemed intolerable becomes the very foundation of a deeper, more profound relationship with God and those we are called to love.
Probably this intolerable language of love is also challenging you, my reader, to examine your own relationships - with Jesus Christ and with significant others. Why not allow it to gradually unfold by removing the resistance you may be putting up?
This is wonderfully said! I agree - it is a gradual movement to sacrificial love!
I think the words of Ephesian 5 are intolerable to our world (especially the woke movement) because in many “modern families”, the self fulfilment and self satisfaction of spouses seems to reign supreme over the Kingdom of God fulfilment.
I’m not judging here because I’ve been guilty of this too. For the first 50 yrs of my life, I have been seeking self gratification in a “me first” mindset. But when you bring this type of mindset in a marriage, it ends up being a competitive match between the spouses because eventually, one expects the other to fulfil his or her self gratifying needs.
But when one spouse (or maybe both) find Jesus, the Word of God, then there’s a GRADUAL realization that leaving the old self behind and the giving of oneself (as opposed to self gratification) for the other and His Glory is the way to freedom, understanding and love .