27th Sunday (Year B)
(Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark
10:2-12)
Our readings today are clearly
centred on the relationship between man and woman that we call marriage. It is both a most natural yet deeply
mysterious relationship -- involving
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 a 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 for men to get out of arising difficulties or even
pursue fancied options, only served to prevent them from being able to
appreciate and attain the true beauty and fulfilment of that
relationship.
Note first of all that, as Jesus
explains, Jewish ‘marriage’ was intended by God to bring about social benefit of
women: affording them greater security and promoting a deeper appreciation of
their dignity. But for us Catholics and
Christians, marriage is a sacramental union which a man and a woman – presuming
the necessary freedom and knowledge -- bestow on each other before Jesus and His
Church; and its supreme purpose is to ‘supernaturalize’ nature in man and woman
that they may thus be enabled to adequately provide for and bring up their
children as children of God and, for themselves, find marriage a social blessing
and a divinely guided pedagogy in the ways of Jesus (e.g. humility, patience,
love and commitment before self and satisfaction) leading to and preparing for
their personal fulfilment and eternal happiness before God.
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 Protestant can appreciate the Scriptures as both the
source of what is generally acceptable in faith and practice and also as the
quarry where individual, personal, preferences can be diligently discovered and
duly adopted. 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; nevertheless,
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:
But how can
they call on Him in Whom they have not believed? And how can they believe in Him
of Whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone to
preach? And how can people preach unless
they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring
(the) good news!" But not everyone has
heeded the good news; for Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed what was heard
from us?" Thus faith comes from what is
heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ. (Romans
10:14-17)
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 such See 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 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
of themselves, she believes, are an imperfect revelation because they are
preparatory: they were 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 own 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, though originally
ours, those New Testament Scriptures also need to be understood, interpreted
aright, for they are a witness to the original Gospel proclamation made by
Mother Church before anything was written down, and as such 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, preserve, and extend.
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 truths contained in them, are
only infallible as guides when understood in accordance with, and as expounded
by, the living Rule of Catholic and 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 Gospel message to which they have obediently
committed themselves in a response of faith.
Neither are they true ‘readers’ of that Gospel, who can, indeed, at times
be so devoted to what they read that
they are willing to sacrifice all for it 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 offering the additional spin-off of a
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, however, some staunch
Catholics to be found in parishes today who, somewhat surprisingly, show
themselves to be of this persuasion by their habit of giving their attention,
first of all, to weighing up, assessing, the person of the messenger sent them
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 recognise his authority or attend
to his message. Only if those first and
personal requirements are fulfilled will they seriously consider giving both
hearing and a measure of commitment to the authoritative message proclaimed and
presented to them by their ‘new’ priest.
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 go on and 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
messengers: 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
-- sure of his ability and knowing his sincerity -- guarantees the authenticity
of his Catholic 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.
Amen, amen, I
say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives Me, and whoever receives Me
receives the One Who sent Me. (1 Jn. 4:6; Jn. 13:20)
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 modern society however, as the
person and personality of either spouse becomes less pleasing over the years,
when their mutual love is no longer felt so powerfully, and when
difficulties inevitably surface in the course of their shared life, some -- who
through selfishness and superficiality never recognized any call to regularly
re-assert and confirm their original commitment -- abdicate their own, personal,
responsibility for the permanence and beauty of the bond which they sealed
before God and claim a totally pagan freedom to ‘start afresh’ and satisfy
personal whim and pleasure rather than seek God’s good will, cultivate moral
forgetfulness and ‘lots-of-work-to-do’ as a substitute for peace of mind and
heart.
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 Himself and thus to hear, recognize, and
proclaim His Law of truth and love to all the nations -- likewise turned out to be an
unfaithful spouse, entering into illicit relationships with the gods of the
surrounding nations. Having failed to
hear and respond to the proclamation of God’s word by prophets raised up from
their midst, they ultimately – contrary to their very being as His Chosen People
– rejected the decisive proclamation of God’s word because the ultimate
Messenger, the Son of God Himself, did not come up to expectations they had
sinfully indulged for too 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 selection of items for belief; we must embrace the Apostolic Faith
offered to us by the perennial proclamation and continued 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.
