Twenty-seventh Sunday (Year B)
(Genesis
2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-12)
Our readings today
are quite clearly and deliberately centred on the relationship between man and
woman that we call marriage. It is such
a mysterious, yet natural, relationship -- involving deep passions which promise
great joys but also occasion deep sorrows -- that it is understandable that
there have been and still are many wrong ideas and false attitudes in its
regard. However, by considering this difficult but fundamental relationship we
can gain deeper insight into the nature of our Catholic faith, so let us
proceed.
Jesus told the Jews
that they had, so to speak, twisted Moses’ arm into his giving them an
inauthentic attitude to both the divine purpose and the human experience of
‘marriage’; an attitude which, by making it easier to get out of arising
difficulties, only served to prevent them from being able to appreciate and
attain the true beauty and fulfilment of that relationship.
According to
Protestant teaching the fullness of Christian doctrine is to be found in the
Bible expressed in the written words contained there; and because the words are
there to be seen and read by all, a devout Christian can appreciate the
Scriptures as both the source of what is generally acceptable belief and practice and also as the
quarry where he can discover his or her own variations. Of course there are some difficult passages
which might need explanation but, fundamentally, such difficulties do not
affect the basic position which is, that what one can see and read in the Bible
forms the basis of belief, and my serious belief is as good as anyone else’s
because it is my personal and sincere response to what is written objectively
in the Scriptures.
It has never been
like that in the Catholic Church … and remember, the Christian body of
believers in Jesus has always been called Catholic; indeed, before 1054 it had no other title
whatsoever, being simply known as the Catholic Church. And so it is today, to the extent that we
always consider ourselves as Catholics, members of the Catholic Church, even
though others in our Christian fraternity insist on referring to us as Roman
Catholics. We are not ashamed to be
called Roman Catholics, for, understood aright, it is quite true; but we are
most of all attached to that title which has always been ours, Catholic.
Now, Catholics are,
and always have been -- first and foremost -- hearers of the Word of
God, not readers of it:
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how
shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? And how shall they
preach unless they are sent? As it is
written: "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of
peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!" But they have not all obeyed the gospel for
Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the word of God. (Romans 10:14-18)
It was ever so, even
in the very founding structure of the Church: preachers, as you heard, had to
be sent, and those originally sent by Jesus Himself were the Apostles
proclaiming the ‘gospel of peace’; and as a consequence of that original
Apostolic mission those Churches were called Apostolic Sees that had either
received the Gospel from such an Apostle, or had developed a specially close
and proven historical connection with one, that other centres of Christianity
did not have. Such Apostolic Sees –
having heard and received the Gospel from Apostolic preachers -- were accepted
as the criterion for catholicity.
Churches not thus founded on or by an Apostle were regarded as members
of the Catholic Body only if they were in communion with those Sees properly
called Apostolic; and it was supremely the Church at Rome -- recognized as
founded upon the two supreme Apostles, Peter and Paul -- that was regarded as
the God-willed witness to Catholic Truth and ultimate criterion for membership
of the authentic Catholic Communion.
In that Catholic
Communion our initial, original, Scriptures were the Jewish Scriptures in the
Septuagint Greek translation which Mother Church subsequently termed the Old
Testament, because she regarded them as God’s revealed word only as read and
understood in the light of Jesus. Those
Jewish Scriptures, she believes, are an imperfect revelation only because they
are preparatory: they are preparing the way for the coming of Jesus and can
only be understood aright when interpreted in the light of His Person, His Good
News, and His history. Our New Testament
Scriptures, on the other hand, are final; and apart from the fullness of Old
and New Testaments together, there is no other divine revelation to be found or
to be expected.
Nevertheless, they
too need to be understood, interpreted aright, for, since they are a witness to
the original Gospel proclamation made by Mother Church before anything was ever
written down, they are always to be understood according to the Church’s Rule
of Faith which gave them birth and which they were originally meant to express,
extend, and preserve.
Therefore, in our
attitude to marriage, we Catholics cannot accept the Jewish approach condemned
by Jesus, nor can we adopt a Protestant attitude which allows an individual to
read the Scriptures and ultimately form his own opinion about ‘my belief’. As Catholics we receive our Christian
identity and life by our faithful response to the Church’s Rule of Faith, for,
we are ‘hearers’ of the living Apostolic preaching not ‘readers’ of ancient and
unchanging books: for those books, supremely venerable though they are for the
divine truth contained in them, are only infallible as guides when understood
in accordance with, and as expounded by, the living Rule of Church Faith.
Many today seem to
assume for themselves the title ‘catholic’ while having but a minimal concern
with faith. They are not ‘hearers’ of
the Church’s proclamation of the Word to which they have obediently committed
themselves in a response of faith; neither they are ‘readers’ of the Word, who
can, at times, be so devoted to what they read that they are willing to
sacrifice all except that right to personally quarry their own beliefs from the
Scriptures. Rather, they are seekers of
a message of pleasant and peaceful accommodation with the world around them,
along with the additional spin-off of a certain measure of personal spiritual
comfort. They don’t want to hear the
Gospel, they don’t even want to read the Gospel, they prefer a gospel they can
‘feel’.
There are others
today who are shown to be of this
persuasion by their habit – perhaps unconscious – of giving their attention,
first of all, to weighing up, assessing, the person of the messenger and
critically studying his style of presentation before attending to the message
itself: they want first impressions to persuade them to like the person
of the priest or find his presentation interesting
and attractive before they attend to his message; and only if those
first requirements are fulfilled will they seriously consider giving both
hearing and, perhaps, even a measure of
commitment to the message thus acceptably proclaimed and presented to them.
However, for us
Christians and Catholics who are hearers -- people called by God through the
proclamation of messengers sent by Him -- it is the message of God’s Good News
that counts. That is precisely the
nature of our vocation: we hear the word of God, and we recognize it as the word of God, thanks to the Spirit of God given to the Church and working within
all whom the Father calls to faith in His Son.
And if -- once having been reborn through faith in baptism -- we are to
become mature children of God, we have to be able to recognize the message
proclaimed by the Church as Jesus Himself addressing us through the words of
her proclamation: He is the Speaker to
Whom we attend, His alone is the message to which we respond; all that we can
require of the messenger is that he has the necessary authority to back up his
message, for Jesus Himself always spoke with authority. Such required authority, however, is not to
be accorded him by listeners who like his personality or his presentation, but
by the Church of Christ which, able to back-up his sincerity, guarantees the
authenticity of his teaching:
We are of God. He who knows God
hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the
spirit of error.
He who is of God hears the words of God; therefore you do not hear, because
you are not of God. (1 John 4:6; John 8:47)
To put things very
simply and somewhat bluntly, it is a matter of distinguishing between the
provisional packaging and the contents which abide. If the packaging is attractive it helps, but
the contents, God’s gracious gift, are alone what matters.
The attitude of
wanting, demanding even, to be superficially pleased before considering the
message or receiving the gift, can have most serious repercussions even to the
message of faith itself. Take the
example of the Pharisees questioning Jesus in the Gospel:
The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, "Is it lawful for a husband
to divorce his wife?" They were testing Him. He said to them in reply, "What did
Moses command you?" They replied,
"Moses permitted a man to write a bill of divorce, and dismiss
her." But Jesus told them,
"Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment.”
Jesus, on the other
hand, taught:
From the beginning of the 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.
Then He went on to
add the most solemn words of all:
Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.
In our modern
society, however, as the appearance of either spouse becomes less pleasing or
attractive over the years, or when other difficulties inevitably surface in the
course of their shared life, many -- who through selfishness and superficiality
have never recognized any call to re-assert and confirm their original
commitment, and who now no longer acknowledge any obligation to give as well as
to receive -- abdicate their own, personal, responsibility for the permanence
and beauty of the bond which they sealed before God Himself, and seek a totally
pagan freedom for personal whim and pleasure, immediate advantage and seeming
convenience.
The Chosen People --
a people formed and prepared by the grace of God over two thousand years to
enter into and maintain a unique relationship with Him and thus to hear,
recognize, and proclaim His Law of truth to all the nations -- had likewise
turned out to be an unfaithful spouse, entering into illicit relationships with
the gods of the surrounding nations.
Failing to hear and respond to the word of the One, Redeemer-God
proclaimed by the prophets whom He had raised up from their midst, they
ultimately, despite their being the Chosen People, rejected that proclamation
because the Messenger – the very Son of God Himself -- did not come up to the
expectations they had so sinfully indulged for so long.
Dear People of God,
in Mother Church we have to become children of the truth:
Assuredly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a
little child will by no means enter it. (Mark 10:15)
As new-born babies, desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow
thereby, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious. (1 Peter 2:2-3):
As children of God,
we have to long for God’s truth, we cannot pick and choose, even from such a
quarry as the Scriptures, to form our own beliefs; we must embrace the
Apostolic Faith offered to us by the continued proclamation and preaching of
the living and universal Catholic Church.
Mother Church, ever
rejoicing in the divine truth of her Gospel message which is the word of God
amongst us still, lives by the Word she proclaims, enabling us who are born of
her proclamation to be born alive; let us therefore, endeavour -- in the power
and beauty of that living truth -- to love the Lord at all times, to seek His
blessing in all circumstances, and to praise and proclaim His glory before all
peoples.
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