27th Sunday of Ordinary Time
October
2, 1988
Mark
10: 2-12St. 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.
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