27th. Sunday of Year (B)
(Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews
2:9-11; Mark 10:2-12)
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Moses gave
permission for a man to divorce his wife; however, Jesus declared that it was:
Because of the hardness of your
heart (Moses) wrote you this precept.
The Law had been given through Moses to prepare the People of Israel both
to bring forth and be able to embrace the Lord and Saviour of mankind when He
should come, and this they did, supremely, through the Virgin Mary of Nazareth. However, the vast majority of Israelites, because
of their hardness of heart, did not recognize and consequently were not able to
embrace the Lord when He came.
Jesus, the Son of God made flesh was sent by His Father to live among
God’s Chosen People, with the immediate aim of leading back to His Father, by the
Spirit, those who were wandering far from their God as a result of the dominion
that Satan held over their lives; His ultimate purpose, however, was to bring
the whole of sinful mankind back to the God Who created them as to their loving
Father by His, Jesus’, re-making of them into true children-of-God. To this end, Jesus did not base His teaching
upon the Law of Moses for, although He did not deny the validity of the Law for
those to whom and for whom it had originally been given through Moses, He Himself
deliberately chose to by-pass the Law of Moses by invoking the Father’s
original law of creation for His children, the law eternally enshrined in their
original make-up, by recalling that:
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 then, they are no longer two but one flesh.
He then added His answer to the Pharisees question about the current
standing of Moses permission for divorce under the Law:
What God has joined together, let not man
separate.
We can see clearly that Jesus had only one purpose in mind: to secure and save true children-of-God for His Father, and for the fulfilment of this He showed Himself adamant, admitting no compromises even though Moses had set a precedent. Jesus’ Gospel was not to be in any way preparatory for something that might come later: His Gospel was definitive and its sole function was to further the formation of true children-of-God: the Holy Spirit was to lead those who would believe in Jesus’ Good News to their heavenly Father as members of the mystical Body of His incarnate Son, that is, as adopted children nourished by the teaching and by the very Body and Blood of His only-begotten Son. Jesus could not envisage spurious children-of-God: only those given to Himself by the Father and formed according to His Gospel teaching by His gift of the Holy Spirit, would be able and fit to follow Jesus to the kingdom of heaven and, indeed, into the very presence of His and their heavenly Father.
This attitude and purpose of Jesus was made devastatingly clear by His
subsequent words which removed any possibility of misunderstanding or
prevarication concerning the supremacy of divine truth with regard to
political, social, or personal, expediency:
Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against
her. And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits
adultery.
Those words were spoken to His disciples in private: they were the ones
who would teach Jesus’ future disciples after He had gone, and there had to be
no hesitancy or uncertainty over a matter of such importance, a matter that so
clearly brings into possible confrontation men’s weakness and wishes with the
exigencies of fellowship with God: proximity to the Father in union with Jesus.
Moses had allowed the Jews a certain relaxation because they had been
subject to a Law which was meant to help them become aware of their own sinfulness
and frailties and acknowledge their need of a Saviour; and in fulfilling such a
function the Law allowed a degree of licence and bestowed a measure of holiness. The Gospel, however, is concerned with the
ultimate degrees of holiness, because it was and is meant to bring believers
into union with Jesus, and into the family of the heavenly Father as His true-children-in-Jesus,
by the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. Likewise,
the fullness of the Holy Spirit could only be given to God’s Church in order to
protect and promote the fullness of truth in all its purity: for only such
fullness and purity of truth could lead human beings to an appreciation of, and
gradual sharing in, the fullness of heavenly glory which is divine
charity. Previously, under the Mosaic
dispensation, certain compromises could be made for human weakness and
ignorance, since the Law was still preparatory, what would be definitive was yet
to come. The Gospel dispensation,
however, is the final and immediate preparation for fellowship with
God. Under the Gospel law, never would believers
in Jesus work alone, for they would always be endowed with, empowered and
enlightened by, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Holiness, and thus enabled
to walk the ways of holiness leading into the presence of Him Whom Jesus
addressed in prayer as ‘Holy Father’. It
is for such reasons that Jesus commanded:
You shall be perfect, just as your Father in
heaven is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)
People of God, today we are given an opportunity to appreciate something
of the divide that many are continually attempting – unconsciously perhaps -- to set up between our modern Church and the intention and will of
Jesus. For, today, emphasis is placed,
so often, on numbers and ‘compassion’.
Teaching, it is claimed, has to be adapted in order to bring more people
into our churches; it should be relaxed, not only in unessential details of
Church law and discipline, but even in matters of doctrine, so that the Church might
be more accessible and welcoming to modern attitudes and mores.
This emphasis on numbers, this solicitude for popularity -- which is the
true project modern ’compassion’ pleaders have in mind -- is far different from
Jesus’ attitude with regard to those who thought His doctrine unacceptable:
Therefore, many of His disciples, when they heard this, said,
"This is a hard saying; who can understand it?" (John 6:60)
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no
more. Then Jesus said to the Twelve,
"Do you also want to go away?" But Simon Peter answered Him,
"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John
6:66-68)
The Gospel message of salvation is, indeed, for the whole of mankind, but
the mystery of human freedom is still relevant.
In Jesus’ own time and among Jesus’ own native people only a relatively small
number accepted Him, and so no one knows, nor can anyone know, how many will ultimately
respond positively to God’s offer of salvation.
Therefore, the attention of the Church should, must, always be turned to
authentic doctrine: Jesus’ teaching,
as Jesus meant it then, and as Jesus wills it to be heard and understood by
mankind today. Teaching can never be undermined
by thoughts and fears about numbers nor must it ever be subjected to the prevalent
preconceptions, prejudices and passions, of modern society. Gospel truth has always to be the pure air we
breathe not mere words to be argued about; it is not a commodity put at our
disposal, to be watered down, topped up, coloured or flavoured, as we think
best suited to current times and requirements.
Mother Church deals – so to speak – in God’s teaching, she dispenses God’s
grace; no mere men, no individuals however authoritative, can ‘fiddle’ with
what is not theirs, and what is for all men of all times.
There is only one Who can guide us into the fullness of Gospel truth: the
Holy Spirit bequeathed to His Church and to be poured out on His Body, by
Jesus. The Good News of Jesus was first
proclaimed by His own voice and understood by His own divinely-human mind; no
merely human mind is either able to adequately understand its fullness and profundity,
or to appreciate its wisdom and beauty; and that is why He gave His Holy Spirit
to guide His Church into all truth:
When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all
truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He
will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is
Mine and declare it to you. All things
that the Father has are Mine. Therefore, I said that He will take of Mine and
declare it to you. (John 16:13-15)
Therefore, the Gospel message can only be rightly understood and
proclaimed by those imbued and endowed by the Holy Spirit: is not to be grasped
like some apple from a tree by intellectual prowess; it can only be known, loved,
and gradually experienced, in the life of the Church which we are called to serve,
above all, by serving the Lord Jesus Himself in and through her, by faithful
obedience and humble perseverance in love. There are, alas, far too many in
positions of prominence whose primary concern seems to be that they should be
able to make their own mark, with the result that they are always seeking to
adapt what has been handed down over centuries in order to proclaim their own
gifts by attempts to popularize and debase the straight and narrow, the light
of life, and the gift of the Spirit.
They would have the Body and Blood available like French fries and Coca
Cola; heaven would be easily accessible to all, indeed, it would be unavoidable,
since for them, hell would no longer exist, being totally out of consideration
in their system. God, however, might prove
a problem for them, since He twice left the Jewish Temple because of the human
sinfulness of faithless guides and pastors.
People of God, the Church of Christ, our Mother Church, can never be diverted
from her purpose, because she is protected by the promise of Jesus and His gift
of the Spirit. But the work of the
Church can be thwarted for a time, and that is why the Spirit -- Who leads men
and women of good will towards Jesus’ heavenly promise -- also leads and needs men and women of good will to
defend the Church. Let us, therefore, pray
for Mother Church, let us love the beauty of her God-gifted truth and the
splendour of His grace at work in her.
Let us disdain the tawdry prospects of all those who offer us what is
cheap and worldly for that heavenly promise made to us by Jesus and won for us
at the cost of His most Precious Blood.
