Twenty Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr Dominic’s Homily

Everyone here has probably been affected by divorce in one way or another. It’s not an easy topic to tackle.

The Pharisees corner Jesus with this question. They are trying to trap him by getting him to contradict the Torah in which Moses allowed a writ of dismissal to be made. But this was mainly to protect the women so that they could legally move on in society. It had reached a point where Jewish men were using utterly frivolous reasons to divorce their wives.  

So Jesus as always answers their question with a question and deals with the issue of divorce by taking his hearers back to the source and beginning of creation and God's original plan for the human race.

Humans are the crowning point of God’s creation. Not simply an obstruction to a healthy environment as society would have you believe. The first man was called Adam meaning from the earth. The word human means from the humus or soil.

Now Adam yearned for someone that he could relate to physically, spiritually, emotionally and psychologically. In Genesis we see that God's intention was that two people should become one in this way. This was God’s will. A sacramental bond. An indivisible companionship.

And this union is found in Adam and Eve. They were created for each other and for no one else. So in many ways they were the standard for all who were to come in the future.

We hear that God puts Adam into a deep sleep and takes one of his ribs to create Eve. The rib indicates the midpoint He didn’t take from the head or the foot.. In other words man is equal to woman in every way. We may have different gifts, make ups and psychologies but we are still fundamentally equal.

I’m sure you have heard it said that one day Adam asked God how much it would cost for a soul mate of this high calibre to which he responded “An arm and a leg” so Adam asks “what would I get for a rib?”

Once the rib is taken Adam is no longer complete until he is with the woman. Their path is to be in communion with each other. She becomes his soul mate – the other we yearn for from the very depth of our souls. A sharing of life at all levels.

So Jesus explains that Moses permitted divorce really only as a concession in view of that lost ideal and He shows how the institution of marriage is rooted in the very order of creation. It’s not simply a human formality but a divine creation and as such cannot be undone by us.

Having said all this we must remember that there is a big difference between a spouse who tries to deliberately destroy a valid and sacramental marriage and one who has become unjustly abandoned.

The Church teaches that annulments can be granted where if it can be shown that for genuine reasons the marriage was never valid in its origin then those involved are free to receive the sacraments and marry in a valid and sacramental way in the eyes of God. But this is very different from the secular notion of a divorce.

Obviously in order for a union to be described as marriage it must be open to the fruitfulness of children in a natural way. This is why today’s gospel reading moves so easily from a discussion on marriage to children.

Parents brought their children to Jesus and wanted him to lay his hands upon them. They knew of his healing power. Children see purely without pretence or falsehood and show complete dependence on God.

The word humility reminds us of where we come from – the humus or earth. In humility we see ourselves as God sees us. Just as pride is the root of every sin so humility is the only soil in which the grace of God can take deep root.

True humility actually has nothing to do with feelings of inferiority or low self-esteem but is in fact quite the opposite as it leads us to a true recognition of who we are in the sight of God and of our dependence on Him.

This is how children can be. And this is how God wants us to be. Jesus wants us to return to that original source, plan and intention that God the Father had for us from the beginning of creation. God has joined us to himself and no one can separate what God has joined together.

There is no divorce that can ever separate us from the love, life, and presence of God.