OT XXVII [B] (Oct 4) Homily on Mark 10: 2-16 (L-15)
Introduction: Today’s Scripture readings are about the bond of love that marriage creates between a man and a woman, a bond that God wishes to be permanent. These readings challenge the spouses to practice the fidelity of their ever-faithful God, honoring their holy covenant commitment before Him.
Scripture lessons: The first reading from Genesis explains God’s original plan concerning sex and marriage. It teaches us that God made man and woman for each other. Hence, in marriage they are no longer two but one, united by an unbreakable bond. The reading also describes the institution of marriage and shows that monogamy was God’s intention from the very beginning. The Responsorial Psalm (Ps 90), expands the marital theme of the first reading and the Gospel to include the children born of the union. Since the children enrich the lives of their parents, the Psalmist prays: “May you see your children’s children.” The second reading, taken from the Letter to the Hebrews, reminds us that Jesus became one of us, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. As one of us, he “tasted death for everyone.” He was not only the Sacrifice, but also the High Priest. We are now his brothers and sisters, bonded with him, and through him bonded with God. Thus, Christ became the brother and Savior of all people – the good and the bad, the divorced, gays, lesbians — everyone. Jesus’ prohibition of divorce can be a source of suffering for those who face difficult married lives. Paul suggests that we have to accept pain as Jesus did, as the suffering we should endure on the way to glory. Today’s Gospel gives Christ’s explicit teaching on marriage and divorce, the Divine origin of marriage, the sacredness of family life and the indissolubility of marriage. These are difficult messages to preach in a society that embraces co-habitation and ignores both the escalating divorce statistics and the dangerous consequences of divorce. The Gospel teaches that family life is sacred, that husband and wife are partners with equal rights and that the destruction of the family by divorce will result in the destruction of society.
Life messages:1) The spouses need to work hard to create a good marriage: Marriage demands that they should become the right persons for each another. Marriage is a union based on committed sharing and forgiving, sacrificial agape-love. It requires a lot of mutual adjustments, generosity and good will to forgive and ask for forgiveness, sincere cooperation in training children and raising them as practising Catholic Christians and daily strength from God obtained through personal and family prayers and punctual participation in the parish liturgy.
2) We need to reach out with Christian sympathy to the divorced and problem families. The parish community needs to accept them with respect, compassion, sensitivity, love and support, sharing the depth of their pain from a failed marriage. The Church cannot sanction remarriage unless the previous marriage was declared annulled by the diocesan marriage tribunal. “They should be encouraged to listen to the Word of God, to attend the Sacrifice of the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to bring up their children in the Christian faith…”(CCC #1651).
O.T. XXVII (10/4/2015)-Gn 2:18-24; Heb 2: 9-11; Mk 10: 2-16 [2-12]
Anecdote: # 1: The grim picture presented by divorce statistics. We are told that during the last three years the divorce rate in the U.S has gone above 43%, although it is still less than that in Russia (65%), Sweden (63%), U.K (49%) and Australia (49%). In 1998 there were 19.4 million divorced adults in the U.S.A. Each year 2.5 million more couples get divorced. A greater number of divorces occur within the Christian churches than in marriages made outside the Church. An ABC broadcast reports that the divorce rate in the “Bible Belt” is 50% higher than in other areas of the country. This affects the lives of one million new childrenevery year, 84% of whom live in single parent homes. Statistics for the U.S. predict the possibility of 40% to 50% of marriages ending in divorce if current trends continue. People between the ages of 25 and 39 account for 60% of all divorces. More people are in their 2nd marriage than 1st (www. ). With divorce being so common today, nearly half of all marriages end in divorce.
#2: Divorce a curse on children: Today divorce is at an all-time high, and there are more lives shattered by it than can ever be documented or calculated. There is hardly a child or a family in the advanced countries that hasn’t been touched by the pain of divorce in one way or another. Judith S. Wallerstein, Sandra Blakeslee,