Homily Twenty-seventh Sunday Year B Plan of God for marriage
Homily:
Twenty-seventh Sunday Year B
Reading
1: What does the Word of God reveal to us in our reading? 1. The origin of man
and woman comes from the creative power of God.
2.
As God formed man from the clay of the earth and breathed life into him, so God
formed various animals from the clay of the earth, but each was different. The
life God breathed into them was not the same as he did for man. 3. Because of
this, none of the animals are suitable or equal to man, who is superior because
he gives them names; 4. The complementarity of man and woman is symbolized by
taking a rib from Adam’s side and forming Eve. 5. Man could see his own
reflection and commonality with the woman, who was like him in all things. 6. There is an equality and yet there are distinctions
and differences, physical, psychological and emotionally. 7. The union of man
and woman in marriage indicates that they are not to be living beings separate
from one another. 8. This was the plan of God from the beginning; the goal of
marriage is not cohabitation, not even love, but union—the two becoming one symbolized
through their mutual gift of love. 9. Their union with one another is to be
complete with their union with God individually and together, not just here on
earth but eternally with God. 10. Following this passage, they are told to be
open to life. This prepares us for the Gospel.
Reading
2: The author of Hebrews is speaking of Jesus, our Lord and Savior. He reminds
us that the Son of God became man, made for a little while lower than the
angels in his humanity. The reason for the Incarnation—the Word taking on our
human existence—was to be able to give his life on the cross for our salvation.
Though
he was the Creator of all that exists, Jesus chose to become like us in all
things but sin, including suffering and death. But the death he chose was one
of the cruelest, death on the cross. Through his suffering he has brought to
perfection the meaning of suffering, namely its redemptive value. In another
words, suffering can have a value in so far as it prepares us for a greater
life. Suffering was considered something to be avoided as much as possible
because of how it can destroy a person and even separate the person from God.
Jesus shows us through his suffering how to embrace it as a means of entering
into the fullness of life with God. Suffering leading to glory.
Gospel:
In the first reading we saw the plan of God in creating man and woman to be
one. Here we see the plan of man, the accommodation due to the hardness of the
human heart. Jesus reinstates God’s plan publicly and privately.
The
key is what God has joined together no human law can override that. He further
gives the consequences of the human law that permits divorce, not based on whether
God sealed this marriage or not. When divorce ignores the seal of God, Jesus
says any consequent union is adultery.
What
was missing in the thinking of the Pharisees was the focus Jesus came to
restore, namely the centrality of God in our lives, not just personally but in
this case, in the most basic of relationships and the fundamental unit of
society, namely marriage.
From
the beginning God brought forth man and woman to be one in and with him. From
the beginning man and woman separated themselves from God first and then from
one another. Jesus came to restore the right order between human beings and God
and between human being themselves.
Jesus
then follows up this teaching by emphasizing the importance of embracing the plan
of God, not from the human perspective but God’s perspective. To embrace the
plan of God in marriage is to have the humble, trusting attitude of a little
child. There is an innocence in the child who can go up to a strange without
fear or concern. Whereas as adults we are fearful and non trusting. To embrace
the reality of the hardships in a marriage takes a trust in God as a child
trusts its parents.
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