Eucharistic meditation

1 Corinthians 10:21-22: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the table of the lord and the table of demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? We are not stronger than he, are we?

As Pastor Sumpter has emphasized, disloyalty in marriage doesn’t sneak up on married couples. Adultery doesn’t suddenly pounce on a marriage. Major acts of disloyalty grow from the seeds of countless minor failures and sins. Sins are left unconfessed and unforgiven; bitterness grows; soon the woman at the office or the guy next door starts looking really good.

Fundamentally, disloyalty in marriage is the fruit of disloyalty to God.

We are adulteresses toward our heavenly Husband before we are adulterers or adulteresses toward a spouse. We eat at a whore’s table because we’ve become used to eating at the table of demons.

This is a marriage feast, where our Lord Jesus offers Himself to us, His Bride. If we come to this table after feasting at the table of idols, we provoke the Lord to jealousy. When He’s provoked to jealousy, He acts: “Many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep,” Paul warns.

This table is not a safe place for adulteresses. It is not a safe place for idolaters. It’s not safe for any of us, but it is good. Eat and drink in faith, because here our Husband judges us, so that we are not condemned with the world. Here our Husband disciplines us to shatter our adulterous friendship with the world.