Gospel Reflection Oct 6 – Deacon Frank Iannarino
Sunday, October 6
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mk 10:2-16
Gospel:
The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
They replied,
“Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her.”
But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
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 flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.”
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
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 people were bringing children to him that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
“Let the children come to me;
do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to
such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it.”
Then he embraced them and blessed them,
placing his hands on them.
Gospel Reflection:
All three readings this weekend for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time invite us to contemplate the mystery and the gift of the Sacrament of Marriage, and its importance for the world.
Marriage is something God has done – and does. We often think of marriage as something a couple does – for example, the man and woman chooses to “get married.” And it is true that in this Sacrament, each person is the minister of the Sacrament to the other, however, the relationship within matrimony is “…what God has joined together”.
Every Sacrament, in fact, is God’s work made tangible and knowable to our senses. The married couple participates in this work; the couple must consent to this work; the couple even makes this work tangible to one another in speaking their vows – but it is God’s gift.
Sadly, we all know the heartbreaking reality into which Jesus speaks in the gospel we will hear this weekend. Divorce, brokenness, and separation were an issue at the time of Jesus and, as we know, these tough issues about marriage are still possible and all too present in our world today.
There are deep challenges facing those who marry. But there is also good news. God has united married persons as one flesh, and he wants to give every married person God’s unconditional love needed to live this reality.
Finally, it is also important to understand that this weekend’s gospel is not only for those who are married. To love rightly and justly is to imitate the love of God who created each of us, and who is united with us through his Son. This love is meant to be the foundation of every human relationship. Although it has a particular form and expression in marriage, the self-giving, self-sacrificial, other-directed nature of love is what we are commanded to undertake by following the Lord in all things.
God made us for relationship with him, and with one another, and calls us to a unity that is described as nothing less than one flesh. Jesus emphasizes the reality of what marriage truly is in this weekend’s gospel.
May we continue to pray for all married couples who embrace this Sacrament by showing us that the closest sign we have of God’s unconditional love for us is modeled in the unconditional love between a man and woman in the Sacrament of Matrimony.
Deacon Frank Iannarino