It is Not Good for Man to be Alone: Reflections on the readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B

Man is a social creature. But it isn’t just the company of other creatures that he craves but human contact. All of the creatures God created were not suitable companions. Hey, I like my dogs, and they are good “friends,” but they are not the same as another human being. Man needs someone who complements his nature but is also his equal. In recognition of this, God created woman to be man’s companion, a wife, and the society of the family. “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.”

In the chapter of Genesis prior to today’s reading, God created mankind: “God created mankind in his image; in the image of God he created them; male and female* he created them. God blessed them and God said to them: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.” (Gen. 1:27-28).

Thus, before the communion of saints, we have the communion of the family, the basic social structure in all societies. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) tells us “Marriage and the family are ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children.

“The Christian family constitutes a specific revelation and realization of ecclesial communion and for this reason it can and should be called a domestic church.” (CCC 2204) We have a crisis in family life today, some of it the result of divorce, which Jesus addresses in the gospel reading. Much of the rest is a failure on the part of couples to live up to the calling of Jesus and Church teaching as delineated in the Catechism and the Bible.

The message of family is touched on in the responsorial psalm. A joyful family is a blessing. “Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine, ... your children like olive plants around your table.” The blessing of the Lord brings prosperity, but it is not mainly in possessions and material wealth. True prosperity is to “see your children’s children” and peace. “May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.”

With the second reading we begin looking at the letter to the Hebrews. Our journey through Hebrews will take us to the end of Ordinary Time this liturgical cycle. For many years this letter was attributed to St. Paul, but current scholars do not believe he was the author, therefore the author is unknown. “Although no author is mentioned (for there is no address), a reference to Timothy (Heb 13:23) suggested connections to the circle of Paul and his assistants. Yet the exact audience, the author, and even whether Hebrews is a letter have long been disputed.” (NABRE Introduction to Hebrews) However, by tradition it is included in the canon of Scripture immediately after Paul’s epistles.

This brief passage from chapter 2 of Hebrews speaks to Jesus becoming man so that he could share in mankind’s suffering and thus able to bring “many children to glory.” As a result we become brothers to Christ, as it says in the gospel of Matthew: “For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” (Matthew 12:50, also Mark 3:35). Paul talks about being fellow heirs with Christ, thus implying brotherhood as well as calling us children of God “through which we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Romans 8:14-17)

In the gospel, Jesus is asked by the pharisees about divorce. We don’t know what prompted this question, the preceding chapter of Mark does not give us a clue, although Matthew notes that they asked the question in order to test him. In fact, the issue of divorce is mentioned twice in Matthew’s gospel, once during the Sermon on the Mount and then again in the telling of this encounter with the pharisees. The pharisees were always testing Jesus, hoping to make a case against him. In Luke, the prohibition of divorce comes immediately after Jesus’s statement that “You cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:13) noting that the pharisees were fond of wealth. Perhaps their umbrage at having their wealth attacked made them look for another way to test Jesus.

Jesus refers back to the first reading, citing the unity of marriage and affirming its continuity. He also speaks to Moses’s allowing divorce because of the hardness of the hearts of the Jews. This is significant because Jesus is often seen as the “new Moses.” It’s also curious that he had to further explain his message to his disciples after they were in the house away from the crowd as they questioned him further. As in other situations, Jesus did not back away from his teaching but reinforced it, telling them that by divorcing their wives and remarrying, they commit adultery and could be forcing their wives to commit adultery. Thus Jesus demonstrates that he did not have one message for the crowds and another for his disciples.

This week is another case of having a “shorter” version of the gospel reading. In this case, the full version has another, significant message, seemingly unrelated to the first. Here we again have people bringing children to Jesus, who embraces them although the disciples object. Jesus rebukes them, “Let the children come to me;
do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.” Jesus is telling us that the humility and innocence of the children is the model we must strive for to enter heaven. Children are humble in that they know that they rely on their parents for most of what goes on in their lives, much as we need to rely on God for our needs. Additionally, we must endeavor to maintain our innocence, through following God’s commandments and through the sacraments in order to enter into the Kingdom. It is Jesus who is expiation for our sins and through the sacraments that we can be made whole again. “... therefore, he had to become like his brothers in every way, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest before God to expiate the sins of the people.” (Hebrews 2:17)