First Reading: (Ezekiel 16:59–63)
Responsorial Psalm: (Isaiah 12)
Response:
Your anger turned away and you comforted me.
Gospel: (Matthew 19:3–12)
Reflection
In the Old Testament, the Jews were very accustomed to making solemn oaths or covenants. These covenants bound them to the promises they had made. God himself made covenants with Abraham, confer Genesis chapter 12, chapter 15 and chapter 17, where God promised to make him a great nation, to bless all families through him, and to give him land.
In Genesis chapter 15, we see the covenant ceremony through the blood sacrifice of animals. Each time a covenant was made, a sacrifice was made to ratify it. That is, to solemnize it. God made a covenant with Noah, with Israel, and he made a covenant with us, and he ratified it with the blood of Christ on the cross.
That is to show us the power of covenants. And in all of the covenants, God always kept his promises.
This is how serious oaths and covenants were, that the one who made them was bound by them.
We remember in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 14:1-12, King Herod swore an oath whatever his daughter asked for, he was going to give to her. Though it was rash, yet he had to keep his word.
This is the reason Psalm 116:18 says, “My vows to the Lord I will fulfill.”
No one forces you to make an oath, but if you do, you must keep it. Because in swearing oaths, we call God to be a witness, and we cannot therefore not keep it because we make God a liar. Being a witness to something that is false.
And this is the second commandment. Do not call the name of the Lord your God in vain.
I swear. I swear.
Calling God to be a witness for what you know is false.
Considering how much people fail to keep their oaths and covenants, how they joked about it, Jesus thought it were better not to swear at all. (Matthew 5: 34-37). Let your yes be yes, and let your no be no. Simple.
And the letter of James 5: 12 says the same.
In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel says God will treat us badly for making light of an oath and breaking a covenant. While God keeps his covenants with us and renews them, we make mockery of ours. We joke about them. Saying things that we do not mean.
This is how serious it is.
It were better not to make an oath at all than to make an oath and joke about it.
One of such covenants is marriage. When two people come to church before God and the people and make a solemn covenant, a bond of marriage, to live together as husband and wife forever till death, it is no joking matter.
Once a covenant is made, the couple must be ready to keep it. And marriage of course is a very challenging institution to say the least. We like to make vows and when things are not as we thought, we walk. That is classic of what the Gospel is talking about.
This was to sound a strong warning to those who thought that they could make empty promises or make covenants they will not keep.
We had better not do it at all than do it thinking and will walk out of it as we choose.
Therefore, it is an invitation, an exhortation to think carefully and choose wisely before getting into a covenant with anybody.
The insistence, therefore, is to know and understand what it entails and not be in a rush to get into it.
Better a covenant never made than a covenant made and you want to go back on your word.
And once we make our covenants to the Lord, our vows to the Lord, we must fulfill.
Amen.
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