A Homily – The Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Genesis 2:18-24

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 127(128)

Second Reading – Hebrews 2:9-11

Gospel Acclamation – John 17:17

Alternative Acclamation – 1 John 4:12

The Gospel According to Mark 10:2-16 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

 This is not a cosmogonic myth of origins, it is a metaphor that argues for the primacy of the human race among the animals of the world, and that of man over woman.

 It is a poor argument

 The argument is won if and only if it is accepted that in the naming of the woman, by the man, the male asserts power over the female and becomes directive of her nature…to believe in this is to believe in a type of witchcraft.

 The writers of genesis would have you believe that this is the natural order of things. They also arrange the trope in a way that explains for them why children separate from their parents, but this second half of the treatment, while reasonably expressed, does not follow from the primary emphasis on naming, and the subjugation of women.

 The world is unjust but do not feat it; rather, hope for a better tomorrow. Believe that it is possible, live your life as if it were here and now.

  Do not fear God; there is no blessing in it.

 Fear is the mind killer, fear is the little death that leads to total obliteration. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to shame, shame leads to hatred and that is the dark side, the path to sin.

 Trust in God, have faith and confidence in God’s love, expressed through God’s word, speaking through the seed of it that God has planted in you.

 Remember God’s servant, Job. Remember that the Sun will warm and then burn, before it scorches the earth completely, though if we are in the correct relationship to it, the sun will power our cities, and feed our crops, life affirming and sustaining.

 Be mindful.

 The rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike.

 Consider the teaching of the apostle who points out with certainty that death awaits us all, and that though death will come for us, we shall continue to exist in God, as all things do, in the divine eternality of being.

 If we take the example of Jesus presented for us to follow…if we take that to heart and face the uncertainty of death with the certain knowledge that the demise of the body is not the demise of the spirit, if we trust in that and God’s plan for our salvation we are born again.

 Know this!

 You cannot serve God with lies and deceptions, God’s spirit is the spirit of truth.

 We make God known to each other through the quality of the love we manifest toward one another and for all human beings, whom God, the creator of the universe, resides in…God resides in everyone

 God resides in everyone, but not everyone acts as if this is true. A person may believe that this is true, but it still requires faith to live a life of love and service, even more to love the stranger, and greater still to love the enemy in your midst.

 Understand this.

 The faithful do not require proof of God’s presence; through the performance of miracles or by the presentation of any other credentials, the faithful know that God is present, in all times and places, God is living in all people…this cannot be proven through the recitation of a creed.

 Consider the Gospel reading for today, it expresses the really good news that is hidden-in-plain-sight in Jesus’ teaching on the way. He tells us:

 What God has united, man must not divide.

 Let me be clear about this, because the foundation of Christian faith and hope rests here, and the greater truth is this:

 What God has united, man cannot divide, it is injurious to try. It is harmful to the self and dangerous to society. It is destructive of the person and of the whole, because it is the essence of sin.

 While the reading for today begins with a discussion concerning the practicalities of divorce, and human relationships. In actuality it is a discussion about our fundamental relationship with God, and with each other.

 We are created in unity, we are created in this way, united both with one another and with God. There is nothing we can do to tear that unity apart.

 In John’s Gospel we read that all things were created in and through God, exist in God, by the will of God, and that without God not one things comes into being or continues to exist.

 Our fundamental, ontological make up is relational, originating in the creator flowing out to us, and to each other in a great web of being.

 Our relationships with each other are essential elements of our being. Our relationships do not just include our family and friends. We are in relationship to every other person who is, ever was, or ever will be, even those we despise, even our enemies are a part of who we are.

 We cannot change this, not even the power of sin cannot alter this reality, because God joined us together in this way.

 Here is the truth.

 When I say this teaching presents the heart of Christian faith and hope, I am speaking of Jesus’ teaching on salvation…which clearly promotes the concept that the salvation of one is not possible without the salvation of the whole…because the part exits with the whole as the whole does in the part...and that is the way of it.

First Reading – Genesis 2:18-24

A Man and His Wife Become One Body

The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.’ So from the soil the Lord God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it. The man gave names to all the cattle, all the birds of heaven and all the wild beasts. But no helpmate suitable for man was found for him. So the Lord God made the man fall into a deep sleep. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs and enclosed it in flesh. The Lord God built the rib he had taken from the man into a woman, and brought her to the man.

 

The man exclaimed:

‘This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh!

This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man.’

This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 127(128)

Peaceful life in the Lord

Alleluia. Alleluia.

Blessed are all who fear the Lord

  and walk in his ways.

The food you have worked for, you will eat:

  God’s blessing will bring you good things.

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine

  on the side of your house.

Your children will be like olive shoots,

  seated round your table.

See, this is how the man is blessed

  who fears the Lord.

May the Lord bless you from Zion:

  may you see the wealth of Jerusalem

  all the days of your life.

May you see your children’s children.

  Peace be on Israel.

Amen.

Alleluia.

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 2:9-11

The One who Sanctifies is the Brother of Those who Are Sanctified

We see in Jesus one who was for a short while made lower than the angels and is now crowned with glory and splendour because he submitted to death; by God’s grace he had to experience death for all mankind.

  As it was his purpose to bring a great many of his sons into glory, it was appropriate that God, for whom everything exists and through whom everything exists, should make perfect, through suffering, the leader who would take them to their salvation. For the one who sanctifies, and the ones who are sanctified, are of the same stock; that is why he openly calls them brothers.

 

Gospel Acclamation – John 17:17

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your word is truth, O Lord:

consecrate us in the truth.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – 1 John 4:12

Alleluia, alleluia!

As long as we love one another God will live in us and his love will be complete in us.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 10:2-16 ©

What God has United, Man Must Not Divide

Some Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, ‘Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?’

They were testing him. He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’

‘Moses allowed us’ they said ‘to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.’

Then Jesus said to them, ‘It was because you were so unteachable that he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. This is why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body. They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’ Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them, ‘The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she is guilty of adultery too.’

People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them. The disciples turned them away, but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.’ Then he put his arms round them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.

 

A Homily – The Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)