October 7, 2018

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time B Genesis 2: 18-24; Hebrews 2: 9 1-11; Mark 10: 2-16 So I ask: What is the most important aspect of life that I have discovered? What makes my life feel satisfied? What seems to spur me on to do more and be more? If I was to describe the wonderful moments in my life, I would look at the people in them? So often people feel the need to get away…to be alone…to have time just to exist and reflect on life and their place in it. When I have taken time to be involved in these precious ‘escape moments’ what ‘life discovery’ have I brought back with me? How do I feel being alone? Do I feel the need to be alone? In my ‘alone’ periods what life lesson discoveries have I made? Does God care about me? Do ‘I’ care about me? Do I need others to care about me? What is caring all about? Does it matter to me at all that I need to live my life with others? One thing that is obvious if we think about it, we need each other. We live in a people world. We need people who are important to us… who care about us…who make us ‘alive’ as we live…who bring out the best in us. That’s how God created us. What happens is that we ‘complicate’ God’s plan. We don’t reduce all life to a common denominator. We feel that it is ‘me’ that is the most important person in ‘my world’. We feel life would be fine without others, especially if I could be the one to ‘choose’ who should be ‘left out’ of my ‘life plan.’ Fr. Richard Rohr has published a tremendous book on the Trinity, ‘Divine Dance’ the Trinity and Your Transformation. It is totally different. It explains that the Trinity is a Trinity of love: All love each Other and All love you and me…all the time…with no conditions or exceptions. I am loved. You are loved. Do I look on God as being Total Love…all Three Persons…all the Time? Do I realize that Jesus came to tell you and me about the Trinity’s love and their love for each of us? Do I realize that the most important revelation of God is that we are called to live love as the Trinity does? And this is totally what Jesus showed us… talked about…and lived. Here are a few comments about the book: • From Bono U2, ‘Finding the sweet spot where contemporary science meets ancient mysticism, and theology meets poetry, the Divine Dance sketches a beautiful choreography of a life well-lived. In our joy or our pain, true life is always relational, a flow, a dance. (And was always meant to be.)’ • From Kevin Prosch, Singer, songwriter, and recording artist, ‘I didn’t think I needed to understand the hypostatic unity of the Trinity; I just needed to turn my life over to whoever made the Grand Canyon. Reading the Divine Dance gives me the same feeling—I want to get up and move!’ I feel today’s readings lead us to God and the message of love and living. The Book of Genesis: Adam is enjoying the Garden of Eden and the fruits of its many trees. He is forbidden to eat from one of them because it later comes to light that this tree brings with it the knowledge of suffering and death. Relationship is about living, not dying. YET ADAM IS LONELY…He doesn’t feel complete. God recognizes Adam’s need for a ‘suitable partner’. Notice that this is the FIRST TIME in the creation account that God declares something to be ‘not good’. God has created all sorts of animals and has Adam ‘name them,' earlier God did the naming. And God presents the woman to him and blessings come and this is why “a man clings to his wife and the two of them become one flesh.”WHAT is God’s plan…His will? Genesis makes it CLEAR: We Are Not To Be Alone. We are to live with each other and love each other as God loves us. Paul explains to the Hebrew community that through Jesus’ every death perfects salvation…’perfect’ means COMPLETE. Through Jesus we become sons and daughters of our heavenly Father. Do I realize how great this is? Can a mother forget a child…can a father reject his own flesh? Even if it happens, Jesus said, ‘I will never forget you!’ It seems that when we hear today’s Gospel we automatically wonder if ‘I’ agree with Jesus’ teaching on divorce. If He only knew what I have to live through…’ We miss the point! In the Gospel, the Pharisees and Jesus’ disciples miss the point too. Now Jesus debates the Pharisees concerning the correct interpretation of the Scriptures. The Pharisees go back to Moses, Deuteronomy 24:1, “When a man, after marrying a woman and having relations with her, is later displeased with her because he finds in her something indecent, and therefore he writes out a bill of divorce and hands it to her, thus dismissing her from his house…” if she leaves and marries another and this man dismisses her and on and on…The law is about grounds for divorce…Jesus asks if this is about people’s hardness of heart and not working on and living their relationships of love as seen from the Trinity. The marriage constitutes a new reality—the process of two people becoming one flesh. This is a new reality sanctioned by God….God’s plan predates Moses. Jesus roots His teaching in God, “What God has joined.” NOW A BIG POINT, not to be missed. Mark immediately tells how people were bringing children to Jesus “so that He might touch them.” If you have been to Rome for an audience with the Pope or at one of His masses… people are ALWAYS holding up their little ones to be touched, blessed, loved by Pope Francis…AND he always responds. Jesus said, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” At the time of Jesus and can be seen in the Holy Land today by certain Jewish segments, there is an inequality. Men do not talk to their wives in public or to any woman and never to the children. WHY? Aren't they people…aren’t they special…aren’t they to be loved…doesn’t God love them? JESUS is totally going AGAINST the ‘accepted norms’ of the day by showing us the EXTENT and the MEANING OF LOVE. Love constantly has to be worked on. Living the Word shares these words: “Sacrificial love is selfless and unconditional. What is God’s will? That we be committed and work through tough times. Don’t give up on each other until it is clear no solution can be found. What is God’s will? That we be like children. They are open, receptive, and trusting, until life evens tarnish those qualities. In Jesus’ day, children had no rights and were among the least of all. So pay attention to the least among us.” So I reflect on: • How do I come to know God’s will in my life? • Am I more grounded in the Law or God, to whom the Law leads? • When has faith seen me through difficulties? • How do I reconcile my agenda with God’s timetable? • Is love the basis of my commitment? How is commitment depicted in the gospels? How did Jesus express commitment? Sacred Space 2018 states: “The unity and love of a happy marriage is a gift from God. Unfortunately, many married people, for various reasons, have been unable to live this gift fully. As in other areas, our inability to live the ideal gives us much reason to turn to the grace and healing of Jesus. I can pray today for all married couples. May the compassion of Christ touch all those who are experiencing or have experienced difficulty in marriage.”