Homilies
Twenty–seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 8, 2006
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What’s the Meaning?
Today’s readings for the Mass of the Twenty–seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time help us to understand more how we are to participate in the fecundity and fatherhood of God.
The first reading recalls the wonderful event when God made woman to be a helper for man. As soon as Adam sees Eve, the pain in his side immediately vanishes and he joyfully proclaims: “This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” Then we are informed: “It is for this reason that a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.” Man and woman copulate and procreate, in their children they become one flesh.
As Adam came from his Father, Adam himself is to become a father, and then Adam’s son will become a father, and so on, and so on. Thus man is to participate in the fecundity and fatherhood of God. As the Church teaches: “The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator's generosity and fecundity: ‘Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.’” (Catechism of the Catholic Church paragraph 2335)
But by the time Jesus enters the stage (thousands of years later), the fruitful vines have grown a bit wild. Hence, Jesus has to do some pruning. Fidelity in marriage was so bad in the time of Moses that, in an attempt to bring the people one step closer to true virtue, Moses legalized divorce. Now, in the fullness of time, the Messiah has to put an end to this compromise and instruct Israel that divorce is diametrically apposed to the fruitful way of the Father.
We hear of this event in the Gospel today. Jesus tells the Pharisees: Only because of the hardness of your hearts did Moses allow divorce into the law. Then he reminds them of the way of the Father: “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.”
But as soon as Jesus promulgates this teaching on marriage and procreation, we see an example of how little people understood. Almost incredibly, the first thing the disciples do after hearing the instruction is prevent little children from coming to Jesus. It’s no wonder that, as Saint Mark tells us, “Jesus saw this and was indignant.” He, therefore, commands the disciples: “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belong.” Then he takes the children up in his arms, lays his hands on them, and blesses them. Like his Father in heaven, Jesus is a father, caring for the little ones.
Together with Jesus’ teaching and example in the Gospel, we hear in the Epistle today Saint Paul’s discourse on fatherhood. He tells us that God the Father has brought many sons to glory through Jesus. Through Jesus, we have been sanctified. Hence, we have become like Jesus, and we all have one Father. This is why Jesus, “is not ashamed to call us brethren.”
What’s the Message?
The message of today’s readings links our destiny to the fatherhood of God. In fact, the readings for today’s Mass serve as the foundation for the Church’s teaching that we are all brothers and sisters in Christ and that our destiny is to reproduce images of God’s Son. “Man,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “is predestined to reproduce the image of God's Son made man, the ‘image of the invisible God’ (Col 1:15), so that Christ shall be the first–born of a multitude of brothers and sisters.” (C.C.C. par. 381; cf. Eph 1:3–6; Rom 8:29) “Called to give life, spouses share in the creative power and fatherhood of God.” (C.C.C. par 2367) “Fecundity is a good, a gift and an end of marriage. By giving life, spouses participate in God's fatherhood.” (C.C.C. par 2398)
To understand how fundamental this message of fatherhood is, it helps to remember the context in which Jesus delivered it. The subject came up when Jesus was questioned about divorce. Moses had allowed for divorce only because of the hard–heartedness of the people. Jesus, if he wishes to teach men how to act like real men, has to put an end to behavior so contrary to family and society. God the Father is father of all. We are one big family. Just as he would never abandon his Church, a man is never to abandon his woman or his children. God so loved the Church that he gave his life for it. A man is to imitate this, giving of himself and becoming like God. “God was made man, that man might be made God,” says Saint Augustine. (cf. xiii de Temp.)
What’s the Response?
A good response to today’s readings is to work on changing our paradigm. It’s somehow a bit vague to say, “Be more like Jesus. Be less self–centered and selfish and act with a more sacrificial love.” Somehow it’s easier to implement today’s message: “Become a good father. Make your decisions based on your fatherhood.”
Bishops are to be fathers. They are to place as perhaps the highest priority the begetting of new priests in their diocese. Buildings and bank accounts don’t matter. Having many solid laborers working the harvest does.
Priests are to be fathers. Concern for the flock means working the confessional rather than working the golf–game.
Fathers of families are to be fathers. Leading the family in the Rosary is infinitely more fatherly than watching the news or the World Series.
Mothers are to participate in the fatherhood of God in a sublime way. Just as the Blessed Virgin is the mystic of the Holy Mother Church, mothers are to inspire their children to prayer by example of their own mystical union with our Lord.
Whatever the particulars may be, decision making becomes a lot easier when are thinking according to the fatherhood paradigm. With the Psalmist in today’s Mass, therefore, we can rejoice in the Lord:
Happy is everyone who fears the Lord,
who walks in his ways.
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be happy, and it shall go well with you.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine
within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots
around your table.
Thus shall the man be blessed
who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion.
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem
all the days of your life.
May you see your children’s children.
Peace be upon Israel!
May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.
Amen.
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Contribution by Brother Anthony Myers
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