27th.Sunday of the Year – B
Gen. 2: 18-24; Psalm 127 (128); Heb. 2: 9-11; Mark 10: 2-16
Read: Some Pharisees approached Jesus and asked if it is against the law for a man to leave his wife. He replied: “What did Moses command you?” They told him: “Moses allowed us to draw a writ of divorce”. Then Jesus said to them: “It was because you were so hard of heart that he wrote this commandment. But, from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. This why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body. They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.” Back in the house, the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them: “The man who leaves his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery againt his first wife; and if a woman leaves her husband and marries another, she is guilty of adultery too.”
They brought to him some little children for his blessing, but his disciples started shouting at them. When Jesus saw this, he was angry and told them: “Let the little children come to me; don’t keep them away from me, because the Kingdom of God is for the likes of them. Verily I tell you that, whoever does not welcome the Kingdom of God like a little child, will not enter there”. Then he embraced them, placed his hand on them, and blessed them.
Reflect: There are situations when a married couple give thought to the advisability of renewing a relationship that has gone sour and seems to be beyond retrieval. Married persons who no longer love one another, with incompatible characters, talk only to offend one another and their children are also involved in the failure of their parents’ marriage. What sense is there in such a couple continuing to live together? Is it possible that God asks for the continuation of such a marriage that has become a form of torture? Is it no better that both parties go their own way and start a new life? Mankind’s quick and logical answer to these questions is to opt for divorce as being the best solution. If so many couples separate after only a few years of marriage, can two chose to continue to live together? If matters do not go well in marriage, is it not better that everybody goes his own way without any more problems?
There is no division greater than the division of the ethics of sexuality, where mankind is tempted to create one’s own standards of morality, and therefore the salt of the Gospels loses its taste with a lot of “buts”, “ifs”, “notwithstanding” and “depending”. It is necessary that one becomes like a little child so that the person concerned enters the Kingdon of Heaven, so as to understand Christ’s difficult proposition. It is only those who feel themselves childlike, who believes in the love of the Father and trusts Him, who can accept God’s thoughts. Not everybody can understand God’s thoughts, “but those to whom the key is given” (Mt. 19:11), not those endowed with wisdom and intellect, but the little ones (Mt. 11:25).
Pray: Lord, teach us to welcome your Kingdom with the heart of a little child without evil, confidently, so as to recognise what you wanted from the beginning; so that what you have put together will not be put asunder by us by ignoring Your plan resulting in great damage to ourselves. Do not keep far away from you those who are confused and at a loss.
Act: Write down some of the blessings that you notice within your family and thank God for these. When you are faced with a moment of trial, look up what you had written and remember God’s fidelity.