Who is your suitable partner?

Long after their last child left home, Ed was resting next to his wife on the couch with his head in her lap. Mary carefully removed his glasses, and said “You know, honey without your glasses you look like the same handsome young man I married.” Ed replied with a grin, “Honey, without my glasses, you still look pretty good too!”

A few days later, Mary attended a lecture at her woman’s club. The topic was marriage, and the speaker asked the audience how many of them wanted to “mother” their husbands. A woman in the back row raised her hand. The speaker asked, “Do you want to mother your husband?” The woman echoed, “Mother? I thought you said smother.” Mary simply smiled to herself as she thought about her own marriage and her life with Ed.

The Lord God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.” Why a suitable partner, what is the ultimate plan of God? Now that we have heard the scripture lessons for today, there are different suitable partnerships that we might discuss: marriage, divorce, family, friendships, same-sex relations, transgender relations and even the relations between Jesus and the Pharisees. However, in the present context of worship in which we now find ourselves, the most important suitable partnership is the human-divine partnership. God created you and me in the image and likeness of God. In other words, we are created to become one with God. This is the most suitable partnership. Marriage is supposed to prepare us for this ultimate suitable partnership with God for all eternity. What about those who never marry or whose marriage ends in divorce? What about those who are attracted to others of the same sex? What about those who, for one reason or other, are afraid of marriage and have no desire to marry? These are important considerations to be explored, but not right now.

The most ideal partnership based on marriage can lead us to our destiny of the sublime divine partnership, eternal life with God. Those who are not able to marry or have broken marital relations are still able to achieve eternal union with God. Keep in mind that God’s plan is for human relations to lead to the ultimate divine relations. Here is how it works.

People experience attraction to each other. These initial attractions are explored and defined which then move to a more intense emotional level. This is very selfish. Each begins to realize joy and great satisfaction in being with the other. What can you do for me that will make me very happy? Eventually, this partnership moves deeper and changes into the altruistic level. It is not so much what can you do for me, but what can I do for you! What can I do for you to help you become the best possible person? How can I help you achieve your full potential with all the gifts and talents you have developed? Gradually, both realize that their ultimate satisfaction is to be found in this mutual self-giving which leads to total and complete union.

As all of this happens on the human level, keep in mind that God has planted within each a tiny seed of desire for union with the divine. Ideally, the child grows up learning about God. The gospel writer, Mark, says that people were bringing children to Jesus that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he became indignant and said, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Parents have an obligation to instruct their children about God and to encourage their children to come to God. As the child forms an ideal and suitable human partnership, then the same human process makes possible the suitable partnership with God. Even if the child is not introduced to God by its parents, there will be an attraction at some point between God and the individual. Nevertheless, the most suitable partner for you is with God. God wants you. God wants you to be with him for all eternity.

If you are open to the possibility of attraction given to you by God, then the same process as described on the human level begins. So, what was it that aroused your interest in God. What was that initial attraction that encouraged you to want to know God? Perhaps someone invited you to come to a church service or attend a bible study or a retreat day of recollection. So, what awakened your interest in God? As you explore this attraction to want to get to know God, you will become emotionally alive in God. You will want these good feelings never to end. However, this emotional high will eventually end. God will not desert you. God wants to see what you will do. If you endure, you will move into a new and different relation with God. Then you will ask “What do you want from me God? What can I do for you? What is your divine will for me? Through prayer that is consistent and earnest day after day, you will come to know God and want to be with God forever. What is so amazing is that God as your suitable partner is possible in this life.

It’s never too late. Your ultimate suitable partner is Jesus. Jesus must be the center of our life, then your focus will become the desire to do what He wants you to do. This is the point of our Sunday worship together. We come to Mass to become one with God through the sacrifice that Jesus made in his death and resurrection, the sacrifice that we celebrate right now. So, we die with Christ to rise with Christ. This is the joy we seek and experience in union with God through his son, Jesus.

Jesus wants us to enjoy and have deep and meaningful relations with each other and especially with his Father. For this to happen, we must work hard at building and maintaining suitable partnerships here and now. God has done his part by supporting us through the Sacraments and other personal relations. What are you doing to maintain your life in God? Let Jesus be your suitable partner now.