“Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, . . . . . . . . . . . Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, . . . . . . . . . . . . For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church,. . . . . . . . . . . . “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, . . . . . . . . . . . . let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
Excerpts, First Reading, Tuesday 29th Oct 2024 – EPHESIANS 5:21-33.
So, this is issue about love and respect in marriage ordinarily shouldn’t be one that should be debated. It is already a given and there’s nothing further from it.
However, with the debilitating trend of wilting and downwards tilting of the economy, some men unfortunately lose their shield.
And once the shield of a man is affected, so, also goes his respect. First from his beloved wife, then, from others. Though, in truth, not all women are like that. Some women have proved to be very supportive. May God bless such women.
On the other hand, some of us who were struggling, once fortune starts smiling on us and the family’s economy starts changing for the better, we will start carrying little girls about. Our beautiful wife will now suddenly seem too old for us.
Dear friend, that☝️is betrayal of trust and of the love we once shared and disrespect of the highest order.
And some sisters, when what they bring home becomes more than the man’s, they will also want to start calling the shots in the house.
My dear sister, that is disrespect. No matter the situation, as Christ says, the man remains the head of the family.
When we indulge in adultery, we disrespect our wife and knowingly or unknowingly, by our actions, we perfect the settings to also be disrespected.
When a woman becomes promiscuous, she has disrespected her husband. By her actions, she willingly relinquishes her position as his wife pending when the pronouncement would be made.
When the both couple engage in adultery, they disrespect themselves as well as their children (if they have any), bring disgrace and sin into their marriage. And by their actions, they have already determined the ill-fate that will eventually befall their family.
Sexual promiscuity is not necessarily getting naked and having penetrative engagement. The act starts long before it culminates there.
There’s no man who is too broke to fornicate or too pious to be tempted. Neither is there any woman too contented to be tempted or too decent to be deceived.
The devil is conning and very patient. He comes at us with familiar things and other things that look and seem far from his intentions.
The family is the bedrock that knits and holds the fabric of the society together. Once the family is successfully attacked, the society becomes vulnerable.
The devil is aware of☝️that which is why he works tirelessly to spoil and destabilize the family.
It therefore behaves on us all, the man, woman, children, the singles hoping to be married one day, the clergy, Christians, Muslims, to constantly continue in prayers and beware of the lures and traps of the devil.
Dear friend, self-respect and self-discipline are the hallmark of loving and respecting one’s self. Once we conquer these, we can also then love and respect others.
May God grant us the grace to permit His will to be realised in our life.
Have a fantastic day folks.
#Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
– AkasebF. Agabo
29th Oct. 2024.