The LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.
- Genesis 2:18-24------------
Brethren: We see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for every one. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
- Hebrews 2:9-11------------
At that time: Pharisees came up and in order to test Jesus asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away.” But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.’ So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” And they were bringing children to him, that he might touch them; and the disciples rebuked him. But when Jesus saw it he was indignant, and said to them, “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.
- St. Mark 10:2-16
There’s a thread running through these scripture readings, bringing together different elements of life which are basic to our human condition, and it really unifies the message God has for us today.
In the first reading from Genesis, we’re told of the creation of the animals and birds, each of which is named by the first man, Adam. And it shows that man was created to cooperate with God, but even though Adam had the privilege of naming all these creatures, there’s a slight note of sadness, because not a single one of them was able to give him the true companionship he needed. God knows this, and we see that lack taken care of with the account of the creation of woman. It’s an injection of a new joy into the story, because Adam is able to exclaim that she is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” And in that creative act of God, we see the ancient basis for the sacrament of marriage, as the bond of one man and one woman laying the foundation for the family, which provides the basic unity for all of society.
Then, looking forward at the Gospel reading, we’re reminded of one of the results of the fall of man, when sin entered into the world, that this sacred companionship – this foundational bond between husband and wife – can be injured. We have the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees concerning the whole matter of divorce. The Pharisees, with their legalisms and their constant looking for the “exceptions to the rule” are trying to trap Christ. They zero in on the marriage relationship, established by God, and they don’t mind using the very things established by God Himself, as long as it would allow them to do damage to our Lord. But of course, Jesus immediately turns their argument into a strong endorsement of this ancient relationship, as He echoes the words from Genesis, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.” In those words we hear the Lord proclaiming the dignity and permanence and sanctity of marriage in the sight of God, and we’re reminded of our dependence upon God’s grace for the foundation of the sacrament of marriage. And He goes on to speak of children – the fruit of marriage – and how their innocence fits them for the kingdom of God, and how we must become as little children in order to enter it. All these are things that we can understand from our human point of view, but so much of the practical working out of it seems beyond our grasp at times.
But in the midst of these things, there is, set like a jewel, the statement of the fact of what God has done for us; namely, that we don’t have to try and work out all this by ourselves, but that He has come to us, to lift us up out of the problems and difficulties and failures which come to all of us at some time or another.
And what is that great statement? The writer of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us, “We see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for every one… He is not ashamed to call them brethren.”
Here’s the good news: God has entered into our human condition – He has come into our situations, into our lives, into our confusion, into our every need. He comes into the difficulties which can plague the sacrament of marriage; He comes into our tendency to complicate human relationships; He comes into our misunderstanding of divine things. How does He come? He comes by taking human flesh upon Himself, and becoming truly Man. He took our flesh and blood; He breathed our breath of life. He was, while He was here, a man with men. In fact, He actually chose to be below most of us, on a level with the most humble and helpless. He asked for no privilege as the Son of God; He went through everything that you and I have to endure. He didn’t exempt Himself from any burden of our mortality. And throughout His earthly life, as each thing came in the course of the years, He accepted it. He grew up as we grow up. He came to be among us, not as some passing vision, not as someone strange or different, but He came to be “bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.” He accepted what is part of the human experience; He accepted and experienced the pain and suffering that we all feel from time to time. He was willing to be man; a simple, plain man, unknown, unhonoured in the world, “made like in all things to his brethren.”
Because mankind is so precious in God’s sight, He came so that He might die as we do, and in dying, so to offer His death in sacrifice for us. And remember, too, that as He came for the good and the blessing of each of us, so He came for all those around us – for our friends and neighbours; for those whom we love, and for those whom we don’t especially like; for those from whom we are estranged, and for those against whom we might have done some wrong. He came and He was incarnate and He died, not only for those who try to live in His grace and peace and hope; but He came, also, for those who are misguided; for those who are blinded by the things of this world; He came for the outcast and the forsaken and foolish; He came for those who are in ignorance; He came for all sinners, for criminals, for those against whom all doors seem to be shut. He came for them all. For them He was “for a little while made lower than the angels.” He came to heal all mankind of the unutterable agonies that generations have suffered from war, from disease, from every torture; He came to alleviate all that has been endured throughout the ages by those faithful departed whom we remember by name at the altar. And He has come for you, in whatever difficulty or tragedy you face. Christ our Redeemer embraces in His Sacred Heart every individual who has ever lived, or who ever will live – and He has pity. He remembers them in their distress. And even though we might not see all that he does, every single person is important to him – whatever their sin, whatever their sorrow – each one as important to Him as I am, and as you are. What a comfort it is to know that our Maker Himself came down among us, to share the nature of us all; to heal the wounds of all of us; to have compassion on the sorrows of all of us; to seek and to save the souls of each one of us. He knows our names, He knows every one of us from our mother’s womb. He isn’t ashamed to call us His brothers and His sisters, and because He was “for a little while made lower than the angels,” He is, in the words of one of the Church’s ancient liturgies, the “Succour of the succourless, the Hope of the hopeless, the Saviour of the tempest-tossed, the Harbour of the voyager, the Physician of the sick.”
What a simple message it is, and yet how profound, that He has Himself become all things to all men, He knows every one of us and our petitions, each household and its needs. And He pleads with us now, to turn our hearts towards one another, to lay aside any high and arrogant thoughts we might have; to set aside our pride and our selfishness, our scorn and our little hatreds, and to bow before the great fact of His Incarnation, which is as real as our own existence. He looks upon our human condition as His own; He is the unseen member of every family; He is the unseen partner in every marriage; He is the unseen companion of every single life. He holds out his arms from the cradle and from the cross: He is our teacher from the humility of His Infancy, and He is our teacher from the pain and sorrow of His Crucifixion, and from this teacher comes the same lesson and call: “Come unto me, all ye that travail and are heavy-laden, and I will refresh you...”
And as He has invited us to come to Him, so we must invite Him to come to us: we must invite Him, and take Him into those difficulties we have in our everyday lives; we must invite Him, and take Him into marriages which are troubled; we must invite Him and take Him into our family decisions, and our business decisions, and our decisions about our children. Christ won’t force Himself into our lives, but He wants to enter through an open door. We must open our hearts to the healing presence of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that He who has “come to us,” might stay with us.
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Image: “Christ Blessing the Children”
by Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693)