HOMILY FOR THE 27TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME B.
WHAT IS GOD’S ORIGINAL PLAN ON MARRIAGE?
OUTLINE
1. Summary of ideas of today’s readings.
3. Jesus confirms God’s original plan on marriage: unity and indissolubility
Dear friends, in today’s 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B Mass, the Church liturgy presents to us what is marriage according to God’s plans as taught by Our Lord Jesus Christ, confirming God’s original design regarding marriage.
1. Summary of ideas of today’s readings.
Man and woman have been created by God. No one is superior to the other and they are called to unite in marriage, an indissoluble union, for the entire life: “What God has united, let man not separate” (1st reading). He who divorces (man or woman) and marries another or another commits adultery (Gospel).
In the 2nd reading from the Letter to the Hebrews, we are reminded that Christ, who has sanctified us by his death and resurrection, calls us his brothers, since we too, like him, come from him, from God our Father . Thus in Him lies our fraternity, and in particular, the strength and foundation of the unity and indissolubility of sacramental marriage between man and wife which grow and is sanctified ever more with participation in the Eucharist, in which He continues to offer himself for us.
2. Creation of woman by God
The 1st reading (Gen 2:18–24) recounts the creation of woman by God, responding to the divine plan of the difference and complementarity of man and woman who will unite and become one flesh:
“The Lord God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him….So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman, ‘ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.”
The scriptural text is clear enough. God remedied man’s loneliness by creating a “suitable partner for him”: so God created woman, and from there, God’s original plan on the difference between male and female, yet complementary to each other, is geared towards their union of life and love becoming one flesh.
3. Jesus confirms God’s original plan on marriage: unity and indissolubility
In the Gospel (Mk 10:2–16), Jesus confirms God’s original design on marriage: it is a UNION BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT BUT COMPLEMENTARY BEINGS, MAN AND WOMAN, who out of love and free consent BECOME “ONE” and NO HUMAN POWER HAS THE RIGHT TO SEPARATE THE BOND WHICH GOD HAS CREATED, JOINING MAN AND WOMAN TOGETHER, thereby insisting on the indissolubility of the marital union and explicitly rejecting divorce.
“But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”
It is then very clear what God teaches about marriage: IT IS AN INDISSOLUBLE UNITY AND COMMUNION BETWEEN MAN AND WOMAN ALONE, SEXUALLY DIFFERENT BUT COMPLEMENTARY BEINGS, UNITED THROUGH LOVE AND THROUGH LOVE ARE ASKED TO CARRY OUT THE DIVINE MISSION TO “GROW AND MULTIPLY” AND FORM A FAMILY.
Any union without respecting the sexual difference innate in the divine plan of marriage, is just a union but not and never will be a marriage according to God’s plans and no matter what any human law would prescribe.
Dear friends, Pope Francis asked us on different occasions to pray so that the “SACREDNESS AND INVIOLABLE OF THE FAMILY AND ITS BEAUTY IN GOD’S PLANS” BE RESPECTED (Prayer for the Synod on the Family).” As Pope Francis said in his Address during the World Meeting of the Families in Philadelphia (Sept. 26, 2017): the most beautiful thing that God made, the Bible says, was the family. He created man and woman, and He gave them everything. He gave them the world! Grow, multiply, cultivate the earth, make it produce, make it grow. He presented to a family all of the love that He made in this marvelous creation… All of the love that God has in Himself, all of the beauty that God has in Himself, all of the truth that God has in Himself, He gives to the family. And a family is truly a family when it is able to open its arms and receive all of this love.”
Let us pray as well for all the Christian marriages and families of the world, so that they “may be places of communion and prayer, authentic school of the Gospel and small domestic Churches” and that “may never experience isolation or division; may all who have been hurt or scandalized find ready comfort and healing (Prayer for the Synod on the Family).”
Holy Family of Nazareth, graciously hear our prayers!
-Fr. Rolly Arjonillo, priest of Opus Dei, of CATHOLICS STRIVING FOR HOLINESS FB page in: www.facebook.com/CatholicsstrivingforHoliness . Hope you like our page and invite your friends as well to do so in order to help more people.
PHOTO SOURCE: Juan Mayné (sculptor), “Desposorios de la Virgen y san José,” detail of the alabaster reredo of the Shrine of Our Lady of Torreciudad (Spain) in http://www.torreciudad.org/fotosbd/29012011212454.jpg
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