Yes, through the sanctification of the other and self
September 25, 2026
Scholarships we obtain in secular studies launch us into practical careers. Some become owners or decision-makers who pay themselves handsomely but shortchange their workers. We then look for another job for better compensation. This cycle repeats until we choose to retire. Likewise, homemakers attend to chores, a clean house and a well-fed family.
We live an embodied life that one day will cease. On that day, we will either carry scars of a hard life or the look of a Hollywood diva: blemish-free, dewy, flawless, fresh, glowing, satiny, or somewhere in between because we have been so blessed.
Life comes at a cost; man strives all his life to balance the books to stay out of debt.
What about the spiritual world? In the spiritual world, we leave the temporal behind. We cast our burden on Jesus and His promise to those who follow Him.
Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.” (Mt 19: 27-30)
In effect, the life of a spiritual person is shorn of possessions except what is on the person. Not even a pair to change into. But a spiritual person is empowered with supernatural gifts to cast out demons and raise the dead, and natural authority to heal the sick. (Mk 6: 7-13)
That is a giant leap to take for someone who has everything except what money cannot buy. Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Mt 19: 16,21,22)
Those reading this reflection (and me) have not sold our possessions and given to the poor, so what happens to us? Will we not have treasure in heaven?
We have a different ministry. While the spiritual person concerns himself with prayer, fasting, administering the sacraments to the flock - the faithful - as a priest or religious, or doing charitable work or work of building the human mind and spirit as an educator, the family man too is entrusted with the duties of caring for the physical, emotional, and psychological needs of the flock of his faithful - his family, his neighbours, and the larger community that sustains him and his family. As a family man, he needs to observe certain tenets in his relationship with his wife, and vice versa. The responsibility is on the man.
One of the big issues St. Paul speaks of is sexual immorality that was rampant among the Corinthians. A healthy family life saves a man and the woman from this grave sin. When infidelity and sexual immorality enter a sacramental married life, it manifests in several other deviant behaviours, from lying to the spread of communicable diseases, secrecy, and aberrations in the management of the family savings. The seed of depravity is sown; it is generational.
In a healthy family life, St Paul says, each is a source of spiritual strength to the other.
To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. If a woman has a husband who is not a believer and is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. (1 Cor 7: 12-14)
The hallmark of a healthy family life is peace in the home:
But if the unbeliever leaves, let it be so. The brother or the sister is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace. (1 Cor 7: 15)
Will we who have not sold our possessions have ‘treasure in heaven’?
How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches. (1 Cor 7: 16-17)
Increasingly, we are having interfaith marriages. Bollywood symbolises it most, with leading actors in interfaith marriages that work for them. Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan are a prime example of a healthy interfaith marriage with three children - no acrimony has been reported by the ravenous media vultures. However, some dispensationalists make an issue of it for their own bigoted reasons.
When such marriages fail, they are attributed to interfaith marriage. To what should failed marriages among Christians be attributed? God? Or individuals’ inability to give of themselves to others. To use suffering as a means of sanctification of the other. Marriages fail for many reasons. On top of the heap is sheer selfishness. Marriages survive because one partner is willing to be a punching bag, using that as a prayer for the other person’s salvation. In that we have treasure in heaven.
- Mathew Anthony
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