Homily for 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
27th Sunday of Ordinary Time

October 2, 1988

Mark 10: 2-12
St. Theresa, Bronx

“Some Pharisees came up, and in order to test Jesus asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’” (Mark 10:2).

Source unknown, but it looks like Dore'

The Univ. of Notre Dame recently sponsored a major survey of American Catholics.  According to this survey, many, perhaps most, ordinary, church-going Catholics think the Church’s prohibition of divorce and remarriage is too strict.

Divorce was also a hot topic among the Jewish rabbis of the 1st century.  It was a topic that Jesus would naturally ask about.

The discussion focused on what Moses had written in the book of Deuteronomy:  “When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, he may write her a bill of divorce and send her out of his house…” (24:1).  What did that mean?  What was “favor in his eyes”?  What constituted “some indecency”?  In other words, what were the proper legal grounds for a man to divorce his wife, according to the Law of Moses?

Divorce was already accepted in principle.  In practice, adultery on the wife’s part was universally conceded to be indecency allowing, or even demanding, divorce.  Beyond that, opinions varied widely, with theological liberals arguing that a man could properly divorce his wife if she burnt his supper or raised her voice—or if he just found a younger woman more “favorable in his eyes.” 

You may have noticed that all the rights in Jewish divorces belonged to the husband.

So some Pharisees asked Jesus what he thought.  He flatly contradicted all the opinions of his day.  Moses permitted divorces, he says, only because you’re so hard of heart, so stubborn, so unfeeling, so undisciplined, and so unteachable.  Moses made a concession to human sinfulness.

On what authority can Jesus contradict Moses and the leading rabbis of his time?  He cites the book of Genesis—also attributed to Moses—and God’s original creative intention.  “God made them male and female” (1:27).  “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one” (2:24).  God created sexuality and its male-female complementarity.  God created marriage.  God intended that marriage make 2 persons one new person.  “So they are no longer 2 but one.  Therefore what God has joined together, let no one put asunder” (Mark 10: 8-9).  God makes the one-flesh relationship between husband and wife as permanent and inseparable as the one-flesh relationship between brothers or between mother and daughter.  You can’t break that; it’s indissoluble.

Marriage is a human institution, but not a man-made one.  When a man and woman choose to enter it, they consciously or unconsciously invoke God’s plan and God’s will.  And God, says Jesus, wills permanence and unity to marriage.  To challenge that is to challenge God’s plan, which is sin.

There are many human institutions which are man-made.  Consequently man may change them at will.  Nationhood is an example.  Man draws boundary lines, creates government, defines citizenship.  He may change these at will, either by rewriting his laws or by migrating to a new place.

But man has no such power over marriage, says Jesus.  Marriage comes from God.

And that so shook the sensibilities of Jesus’ disciples that they wanted to talk further about it when they got home.

Who is a disciple?  What does the word mean?  A disciple is someone who’s teachable, capable of learning, willing to learn.  Jesus called the advocates of divorce hard of heart, unteachable.  He continues to teach his disciples, continues to teach us.  Today his disciples are the Church.

At home Jesus teaches more bluntly than he did with the Pharisees:  divorce and remarriage is adultery.  We noted before that in Judaism the husband had rights in divorce.  So Jesus is speaking up for women in this matter.  He’s a feminist, protecting a wife’s right to be cherished, not to be treated like an animal or a slave.

Now St. Mark apparently wrote his Gospel in Rome for Roman readers.  In Rome women could file for divorce.  So St. Mark has Jesus add, “If a wife divorces her husband and married another, she commits adultery” (10:12).  Jesus, a true feminist, teaches that rights and responsibilities run both ways.

Out of the blue, it seems, people begin to bring children to Jesus for his blessing.  This is not just a cute scene accidentally following Jesus’ strict teaching about divorce.  It belongs in the context of teaching and teach-ability.  “Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (10:15).

The scene has to do with receptivity, openness, teach-ability—with discipleship, in other words.  Children are teachable.  If we want to be Jesus’ disciples, we must be just as teachable, just as open to his word—not hard of heart, insensitive, undisciplined, like those who favored easy divorce.  If we want to enter the kingdom of God, we must be like children around Jesus.

So with childlike faith we come to holy Mass this morning, to hear Jesus, to celebrate our discipleship, to seek his guidance, and to ask his blessing on our families.