27th Sunday of Ordinary Time (2024)

Earlier this week, I spoke to some parishioners about today's scripture readings. When we got to
the gospel reading and heard Jesus talk about the controversial topic of divorce, someone
suggested that maybe I should preach on the psalm.

Today's psalm passage is lovely. It offers wholesome images of a person walking in God's ways,
enjoying the fruits of faithfulness, with a loving wife like a fruitful vine and children lined up
like olive trees around the family table. The psalm gives me a great deal of material for a nice,
warm, fussy homily that would have sent us all out the door feeling good about ourselves.

However, such a homily would not have offered us a challenge to be open to conversion. The
suggestion to preach on the psalm was tempting, but I couldn't help but smile and say
"No, no,
Jesus never shied away from the challenges of his day, and neither should I. I have to be like
Jesus and speak today to the challenging issue of divorce."

At this point in Mark's Gospel, Jesus is on his final journey up to Jerusalem and the cross. As he
walks along, he recognizes the need to tackle the difficult topics causing us to fall short of being
faithful to God. Before Jesus completes his ministry and gives up his life on the cross, he wants
to address the challenging issues disciples must contend with if we are to be faithful to the call to
citizenship in the Kingdom of God.

Just as it is today, divorce was an acute issue in Jesus' day. It was an issue that was so
controversial the Pharisees attempted to use it to trick Jesus. In today's gospel, we hear that
divorce is legal according to the Mosaic Law. While it was legal, the grounds for divorce were a
situation of contention. The strict school of the law held that only adultery was a ground for the
breakup of a marriage. On the other hand, the most liberal school of thought held that any action
by a wife that displeased her husband could be a reason to break the marriage bond.
The grounds for dissolving a marriage were so loose in Jesus' day many young women were
reluctant to enter into marriage. In Jesus' day, women were considered the property of their
fathers while they were unmarried and their husbands after marriage. If a woman entered into
marriage and was then divorced, they were forced to go back to seek the care of their family. If
that wasn't forthcoming, living in poverty or immorality was their destiny. Even in Jesus' day, the
breakup of family life was a complex issue.

In his response to the challenge from the Pharisees, Jesus brings the discussion back to God's
original intention for marriage and all of our relationships. We long for all our relationships to
last, especially that of a married couple. While the Mosaic Law allowed divorce, Jesus claims it
was a concession on the part of Moses to try to control the problem of divorce, which also was a
challenge in Moses' day. The Mosaic Law was trying to add stability to the marriage relationship.
By requiring the husband to write a bill of divorce bill, it required his making a public statement
that a marriage relationship had ended. This bill was discharging the wife from any expectation
of fidelity to him.

In his response to the Pharisees, Jesus did something revolutionary. He shifted the conversation
away from what Moses wrote about marriage and divorce and focused on what God meant for
marriage and all relationships to be like. Jesus said the issue is not a discussion of divorce but the
need to strengthen relationships, especially the most important one between a couple. He stated

men and women were equals in the marriage relationship. By invoking the image of what God
intended at the time of Creation, Jesus pointed out that the question shouldn't be about breaking
the marriage bond but how we work to make the bond more like the one God originally intended
for the marriage relationship.

Jesus points out that God didn't mean that the marriage relationship should be one of dominance
by one partner but of mutuality. God intended a married couple to grow together to become a
single being. In today's creation story from the Book of Genesis, we hear how God envisioned
the first man and the first woman to be a participation in one another. It was to be a close and
compatible relationship where the married couple acted in unity.

Jesus pointed out that God's original purpose was for the couple to grow together and imitate the
relationship God and Christ have. It is to have a lasting fidelity where love cannot end because
the love of God does not end. The marriage relationship is the kind where both partners work
together for the common good of all Creation. Jesus says that the marriage relationship is one
where both parties strive to know each other so intimately that they can work in mutuality for the
same objectives.

Yes, Jesus' marriage ideal is a challenging one. It was difficult for the early Church because it set
them against the easy and selfish views of the marriage relationship practiced in their
surrounding culture. Just because it is a challenge for us doesn't mean Catholics should set this
ideal aside and adopt the easy and selfish views held by our own current culture.
Yes, the marriage relationship Jesus speaks of in the gospel is an ideal, and many relationships
fall short of it today. Just because it is ideal does not mean it should not be our goal for our
marriages and all of our relationships.

Family life has become an issue in our current election cycle. The need for government support
of the family through taxation and other policy decisions has made the headlines. Our Church
supports policies that help encourage healthy family life and the support of parents working to
raise families. These issues deserve our serious consideration as we vote in the coming weeks.
We need to support candidates who don't only claim to support family life but follow through
with policies that do it.

Pope Francis and Church teachings reaffirm its unwavering support for traditional marriage and
the family. Francis has called for a rekindling of enthusiasm for entering into marriage and
establishing families. He has encouraged young people to be brave and to opt for marriage and
family life. Marriage and the procreation of children is demanding but gratifying work.
The Church will not be changing its teaching on the sanctity and indissolvability of sacramental
marriage. Pope Francis has, however, been pursuing the question of how the Church can be more
open and welcoming to people who have not been able to fulfill the call to make their marriages
lasting sacramental ones. Pope Francis has called for streamlining the annulment process for
people seeking to prove their marriages were not sacramental marriages.

But there remains the case of divorced and remarried Catholics who, for specific reasons, may
not be able to follow through on the annulment process. Yet they are now in second marriages
with the characteristics of committed relationships of lasting fidelity. They hunger to have a
lasting relationship with Christ and his Church through the Sacrament of the Eucharist. How do
we open avenues to help them restore their relationship with Christ and the Church? We all need
to pray for a solution.

Married couples can work together to deepen their relationship with their spouse and encourage
others to do the same. The Church offers many opportunities for you to grow in your
relationships as a couple. One is a weekend retreat called Marriage Encounter. It describes itself
as a weekend to make good marriages better. For marriages in trouble, the Church offers the
Retourille Program to try to put those marriages back on solid ground. Take the time to invest in
your marriage, and allow it to grow and flourish as you strive to make it a relationship modeled
after the relationship between Jesus and God the Father.

God has invested in His relationship with each one of us. He made the tremendous gift of
sending Jesus, the gift of God's love, to return us to the kind of relationship that existed at
Creation. Today, in the Eucharist, we celebrate God the Father, who gives us the great gift of his
love in the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Jesus, our Lord. This week, use the gift of grace to
strengthen not only the marriage relationship with your spouse but all your relationships,
especially your relationship with God.