As God Intends – 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Once again, the Pharisees come to Jesus with a question. This time they ask, “Is it lawful for husband to divorce his wife?” (today’s gospel reading).
It’s not a bad question. Actually, given the amount of divorce we see today, it’s an important question. The Pharisees ask the question with a bad motive, to test him. Yet, the answer is important.
Jesus’ answer isn’t just about divorce. The way He answers says something about where we go for answers.
He first replies by asking, “What did Moses command you?” Moses was the central human authority for the Jews. Jesus accepts and uses Moses as an authority but Moses is not the ultimate authority.
The Pharisees respond that Moses did permit divorce. Jesus acknowledges that Moses did indeed permit divorce. Jesus states that Moses permitted divorce because of the hardness of their hearts.
Yes, Moses permitted divorce but Moses is not the ultimate authority. God is. We must look at what God intends. For this, Jesus goes back to the time of creation when “God made them male and female…and the two shall become one flesh…Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”
Divorce is not part of God’s plan. We need to take marriage seriously. We must take marriage as God intends. Divorce is real. Some people never should have married. That’s where annulments come in, to determine that the marriage was not valid from its beginning.
God made marriage part of his plan from the beginning for humans because He knew, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” God set about making a suitable partner for the man.
God created the animals and gave them to the man to name them. To name something is to have power over it. The man named all of the animals but “none proved to be the suitable partner for the man.”
The man needed someone special. Man needs an equal, not someone (like the animals) to have dominion over. God created the suitable partner for the man from the man’s own rib. The suitable partner had to be of the same substance as the man but yet she was different. She was a woman. To be suitable partners for one another, they are made of the same substance but yet their bodies differ in their biological gender in a way that compliments one another. The difference is more than just male/female gender. The difference between the bodies indicates a difference in who they are in a way that compliments one another.
God intends for marriage to be a marriage of equals yet different. God intends for marriage to be till death do they part. We do well to follow what God intends, to “walk in his ways” with a proper “fear of the Lord.”
What God intends is good for us not just in marriage but in all things. For instance, today we celebrate Respect Life Sunday (just as we do the first Sunday of October every year). When considering life issues we need to consider what God intends. When does life begin?
When a female egg comes together with male sperm a new life is formed. A unique individual is formed with a unique genetic makeup that will never be repeated. Life begins at this moment. There is no moment after this as indicative of the unique individual. Since life begins at conception, it must be treated with dignity from that moment, including the Fifth Commandant, thou shall not kill.
Jesus calls us to feed the hungry and other corporal works of mercy. We must honor this works of mercy from the moment when life begins at conception until natural death. That means helping those in need whatever age they may be.
Death is a sacred time. It is not for us to decide when it happens. Until it happens naturally, we treat the person with love and compassion.
Our Catholic faith says no to the death penalty. What happened to an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (Leviticus 24:20)? Jesus helps us understand what God intends in Matthew 5:38-39. When God say an eye for an eye, He was not calling for the death penalty. He was actually trying to reduce killing. God was instituting a limit, not a goal.
Do you care what God intends? Do you do what God intends? Or do you do things your own way? You are free to do things your own way but there are eternal consequences to our choices.
Peace,
Fr. Jeff