Homily for the 27thSunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B)
Based on Mk 10:2-16 (Gospel), Gn 2:18-24 (First
Reading) and Heb 2:9-11 (Second Reading)
From the Series: “Reflections and Teachings of the Desert”
DIVORCE
The Gospel for this Sunday is from Mk 10:2-16. Verses 2 and 3 say: Some
Pharisees approached him and asked, “Is it against the law for a husband to
divorce his wife?” They were testing him. He answered them in reply, “What did
Moses command you?”
Parallel text of verse 3 is Dt 24:1 that says: “Supposing a man has taken a wife and
consummated the marriage, but she has not pleased and he has found some
impropriety of which to accuse her; so he has made a writ of divorce for her
and handed it to her, and then dismissed
her from his house…”
Verses 4, 5 and 6 say: ‘Moses permitted us,’ they said, ‘to draw up a writ and so to divorce.”
Then Jesus said to them, “It was because you were so unteacheable that he wrote this commandment for you. But from
the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.
Parallel text of verse 6 is Gn 1:27 that says: “God created man in the image of himself; in
the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Verses 7, 8, 9 and 10 say: This is why a man must leave father and mothera and be
joined to his wife, and the two shall 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. Footnote a
says: “Add ‘and cling to his wife’, cf.
Gn 2:24 and Mt 19:5.”
Parallel text for verse 10 is Mk 7:24 that says: He left that place and set out for the
territory of Tyre.g There he went into a house and did not want
anyone to know he was there, but he could not pass unrecognized. Footnote g says “Add. ‘and
Sidon’, cf. Mt15:21”.
Verse 11 says: And he said to them, “The man who
divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her.
Parallel texts
are:
1.
Mt 5:32 - But I say this to you: everyone who
divorces his wife, except for the case of fornication, makes her an adulteress;
and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
2. Lk
16:18
- “Everyone who divorces his wife and
marries another is guilty of adultery, and the man who marries a woman divorced
by her husband commits adultery.
Verses 12 and 13 say: And if a woman divorces her
husband and marries another, she commits adultery too. People were bringing
little children to him for him to touch them. The disciples turned them away,
Parallel texts for verse 13 are:
1. Mt
19:13-15 - People brought little children to him, for him to lay his hands on
them and say a prayer. The disciples turned them away, but Jesus said, ‘Let the
little children alone, and do not stop them coming to me; for it is to such as
these that the kingdom of heaven belongs’. Then he laid his hands on them and
went on his way.
2. Lk
18:15-17 - Jesus and the childrenb People
even brought little children to him, for him to touch them; but when the
disciples saw this they turned them away. But Jesus called the children to him
and said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not stop them; for it is
to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. I tell you solemnly, anyone
who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter
it.’ Footnote b- Lk here rejoins Mark’s narrative which he deserted
in 9:50. Cf. 9:51+.
3. Lk
9:47 - Jesus knew what thoughts were going through their minds, and he took a
little child and set him by his side.
Verses 14, 15 and 16 say: but when Jesus saw this he was indignant and
said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is
to such as these that the kingdom of God
belongs. I tell you solemnly, anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God
like a little child will not enter it. Then he put his arm around them and gave them
his blessing.”
Parallel text for verse 15 is Mt 18:3 that says: Then he
said, “I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children
you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
The First Reading is taken from Gn 2:18-24.
Verse 18 says: Yahweh God said: It is not good that
the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.
Parallel text for this verse are:
1. Tb
8:6 - It was you who created Adam, and
you who created his wife Eve to be his help and support; and from these two the
human race was born. It was you who said, ‘It is not good that the man should
be alone; let us make him a helpmate like himself.’
2. Qo
3:20 - Both go to the same place; both originate from the dust, and to the
dust both return.
Verses 19, 20 and 21 say: So from the soil Yahweh
God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These he brought
to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it. The man gave names to
all the cattle, all the birds of heaven, and all the wild beasts. But no
helpmate suitable for man was found for him. So Yahweh God put the man into a
deep sleep. And while he slept, he took out one of his ribs and encircled it in
flesh.
Parallel text for verse 19 is 1 Tm 2:13, which
says: For
Adam was formed first, then Eve.
Verse 22 to 23 say: Yahweh
God built the rib he had taken from the man into a womani and
brought her to the man. The man exclaimed: “This at last is bone from my bones
and flesh from my flesh! This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for this was taken
from man.j Footnote
i says “Figurative expression of the close
relationship between man and woman, v. 23, which explains their attraction for
each other, v. 24 and 3:16”; and Footnote j says “In
Hebrew, a play on the words ishshah ‘woman’ and ish “man’”.
Parallel texts for verse 22 are:
1.
1 Co 11:8-9 - For man did not come from woman,
no, woman from man; and man was not created for the sake of woman, but woman created
for the sake of man.
2.
1 Tm 2:13 - For Adam was formed first, then Eve..
3. Is
26:12 - LORD, you are giving us peace for us, since you treat us as our did
deserve.
Verse 24 says: That is why a man leaves his father
and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Mt 19:5 - And that he said, ‘This is why a man must leave father and mother,
and cling to his wife, and the two become one body?
2.
Mk 10:7 - This
is why a man must leave father and mothera and be joined to his wife.
Footnote a says ”Add ‘and cling to his wife’, cf. Gn 2:24 and
Mt 19:5.”
3.
1 Co 6:16 - As you know, a man who goes with a
prostitute is one body with her, since the two, as it is said, become one
flesh.
4. Ep
5:31 - “For this reason a man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become
one body.”
The Second Reading is taken from Heb 2:9-11.
Verse 9 says: But we do
see Jesus he who was for a little while” was made “lower than the angels “and
is now crowned with glory and splendor because he submitted to death,d by God’s gracee
he to experience death for all mankind. Footnote
d says
“Christ is glorified because he
suffered and this triumph shows that God accepts the redemptive nature of his
death”; and Footnote e says “‘God’s grace’; rare var. ‘without God’ which may have been a gloss
meant to emphasize that the Messiah could suffer only in his human, not in his
divine, nature; but it could be an allusion to what Jesus cried out from the
cross (Mt. 27:46), or it could be taken as meaning that Christ died for all,
but not for God, cf. 1 Co 15:27.”
Parallel text is Ph 2:6-11 which says:
His state was divine,e yet he did not cling to his equality with Godf(v.
6), but emptied himselfg to assume the condition of a slave,h
and became as men arei; and being as all men are,j (v. 7), he was
humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on a cross (v. 8).But God raised
him high and gave him the name which is above all other names (v. 9) so that
all beings in the heavens, on earth and the underworld,n should bend
the knee at the name of Jesus (v. 10) and that every tongue should acclaim o
Jesus Christ as Lord, p to the glory of God the Father. q (v.
11). Footnote e says “Lit. ‘Who subsisting in the form of God’:
here ‘form’ means all the attributes that express and reveal the essential
‘nature’ of God; Christ, being God, had all the divine prerogatives by right.”;
Footnote f says “Lit.
‘did not deem being on an equality with God as something to grasp’ or ‘hold on
to’. This refers not to his equality by nature ‘subsisting in the form of God’,
and which Christ could not have surrendered, but to his being publicly treated
and honored as equal to God which was a thing that Jesus (unlike Adam, Gn
3:5,22, who wanted to be seen to be like God) could and did give up in his
human life;” Footnote g
says ‘He emptied himself’; this is not so
much a reference to the fact of the incarnation, as to the way it took place.
What Jesus freely gave up was not his divine nature, but the glory to which his
divine nature entitled him, and which had been his before the incarnation, Jn
17:5, and, which ‘normally’ speaking would have been observable in his human
body (cf. the transfiguration, Mt 17:1-8). He voluntarily deprived himself of
this so that it could be returned to him by the Father, cf. Jn 8:50,54, after
his sacrifice, vv.9-11.”; Footnote h
says ‘slave’ as opposed to ‘Kyrios’ v.
11, cf. Ga 4:1; Col 3:22f. Christ as man led a life of submission and humble
obedience, v. 8. This is probably a reference to the ‘servant’ of Is
52:13-53:12, cf. Is 42:1”; Footnote i
says “Not just ‘a human being’ but a
human being ‘like others’; sharing all the weaknesses of the human condition
apart from sin’; Footnote j
says “Lit. ‘And in fashion found as man’; Footnote
k says “Lit
‘super-raised him’; by the resurrection and ascension”; Footnote l says “Named him ‘Lord’, v. 11; or, at a deeper
level, gave him an ineffable and divine name which, through the triumph of the
risen Christ, can now be expressed by the title Kyrios, Lord, cf. Ac 2:21;
3:16+; Footnote m says “Greater even than the angels, cf. Ef 1:21;
Heb 1:4; 1 P 3:22”; Footnote n says “The three cosmic divisions that cover the
entire creation, cf. Rv 5:3,13”; Footnote o
says “Var. ‘and every tongue shall
acclaim’; Footnote p says “Om.
‘Christ’. This proclamation is the essence of the Christian creed, Rm. 10:9, 1
Co. 12:3, cf. Col. 2:6. The use of Is. 45:23 (in which this homage is addressed
to Yahweh himself) is a clear indication of the divine character that is meant
to be understood by the title Kyrios, cf. Jn. 20:28, Ac. 2:36’; Footnote q
says “Vulg. Interpretation is ‘proclaim
that Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father’”.
Verse 10 says:
As it was his purpose to bring a great many of his sons into glory, it was
appropriate that God, for whom everything exists and though whom everything
exists, should make perfect, though suffering, the leader who should take them
to their salvation.f Footnote
f says “By dying and fulfilling the will of God, Christ becomes the one perfect
savior, responsible for the entry of human beings into the glory of God.”
Parallel texts are:
1.
Rm 11:36 - All that exists comes from him; all
is by him and for him. To him be glory forever. Amen.
2.
1 Co 8:6 - Still for us there is one God, the
Father, from all things come and for whom we exist; and there is one Lord,
Jesus Christ, though whom all things come through whom we exist.
3.
1 Co 12:2 - You remember that, when you were
pagans, whenever you felt irresistibly drawnb it was towards dumb
idols. Footnote b says “Allusion
to the frenzies and orgies of some pagan cults”.
4.
Is 53:4 - And yet ours were the sufferings he
bore, ours the sorrows he carried. But we, we thought of him as someone
punished, struck by God, and brought low.
5. Heb
5:9 - But having been made perfect,d
he became for all who obey him the source of eternal salvation…Footnote d
says “Having totally succeeded in his task of being priest and victim.”
Verse 11 says: For one
who sanctifies, and the ones sanctified, one of the same stock,g
that is why he openly calls them “brothers.”
Footnote g says “From the context, the translation could read
‘from a single whole’.”
Parallel texts of verse 11 are:
1.
Jn 17:19 -
And for their sake I consecrate myself,n so that they also may be
consecrated in truth.o Footnote n says “Jesus offers himself in sacrifice for his
followers”; and Footnote o
says “Dedicated to God’s worship ‘in
spirit and truth’.”
2. Ac
3:15 - While you killed the prince of
life.i God, however, raised
him from the dead, and to that fact we are the witnesses. Footnote i says “The
one who leads his subject to full life, imparting his own life to them. In the
Roman liturgy the Easter Sequence borrows the expression Dux vitae mortuus
regnat vivus. This same title of ‘leader’ is given, 7:27.
Several articles have been taken from
the online Internet concerning the divorce topic that may serve as a resource
material for this homily, viz:
1.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
Divorce (or the dissolution
of marriage) is defined by this Wikipedia article as “the termination of a marital union, the canceling and/or reorganizing
of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the bonds
of matrimony between a married couple under the rule of law of the particular
country and/or state.” Furthermore it adds that:
Since “divorce… declares a marriage null and void, [it] can be a stressful experience affecting
finances, living arrangements, household jobs, schedules, parenting and the
outcomes of children of the marriage as they face each stage of development
from childhood to adulthood. If the family includes children, they may be
deeply affected.” “The grounds for a divorce which a party
could raise and need to prove included 'desertion,' 'abandonment,' 'cruelty,'
or 'adultery.'”
Types of divorce :
a.
No-fault divorce - requires no allegation or proof of fault of either
party.[8] The barest of assertions suffice.
b.
Fault divorce - requires proof by one party that the other party had
committed an act incompatible to the marriage.
Skinner
says towards the end of this article that:
“Sermons must address Jesus' words about divorce to help people gain a
theological perspective on it. This does not mean that the passage launches
games of exegetical "gotcha" in which people elevate certain sins
over others or try to parse exactly where Jesus assigns blame. Since preaching
is a form of pastoral care, and since divorce has touched nearly every family,
preachers should think about how a sermon can promote healing while wrestling
with the passage's theological rationale concerning marriage and divorce. While
a single sermon should not aim to cover all the issues this passage raises, it
might take account of certain points derived from our study of the text:
If marriage is what Jesus says it is, then we understand better why
failed marriages bring such pain to couples, extended families, and
communities. Jesus brings into view the hurt and brokenness that come, even
when a divorce appears to be the best among all available options. Jesus'
special concern for children should remind us that they are often victimized
when parents divorce.”
In this regard, taking the wise advice of Matt Skinner as quoted in the
above section, I would like to submit my own thought regarding the Church’s
teaching on Christian families, which is found as an Appendix to my book “Initiating Into the Christian Mysteries”.
The whole Appendix 1 article is quoted below as it is found in that book with
the intention that the question of divorce may be settled by upholding the Christian’s
viewpoint about family life and Christian marriage.
FAMILIES IN EVANGELISM: God’s Plan for Families
1.
In
the beginning of time
When
God created the world, his purpose was to create a home, a dwelling and to
extend himself as a family (Cfr. Is. 45:18).
In the beginning, before the eons began and before His creative act, God
was existing in the unitary mode of existence as the single monad or unit of
life (Cfr. Gn. 1:1a; Is. 42:14, 43:10f., 44:24; Acts 17:26). God was pre-existing in eternity as a pure
spirit, “whose home is in inaccessible light”, all by Himself as a Godhead, a
triune or uni-plural God (Cfr. 1 Tim. 6:15f).
Although the Godhead is intrinsically a
family, a unity of three personalities of the Father who is the “Ruler of all,
the King of kings and the Lord of lords” (Cfr. 1 Tim. 6:15), of the Christ or
Logos as the only-begotten Son (Cfr. Jn. 1:1,14), and of the Holy Spirit as the
“Sophia” or Wisdom (Cfr. Ws. 8:25f), indeed they were a happy
family in unity and love, yet God wanted to extend Himself eternally by
generation and to enter into time and space by an act of creation.
He created the “heavens and the
earth” (Cfr. Gn. 1:1b), and everything that is in them “with all their array”
*(Cfr. Gn. 2:1).
By means of Wisdom (Sir. 1:9),
God made Mother Nature (=Latin “nascor”, meaning “birth,
originate, generate, engender”) to be His bride and spouse (Is. 54:5, 62:5) to
be the mother of all created things and beings (Cfr. Ws. 7:12; Sir 15:2), and
through her to beget God’s children by the Law of Hierarchy both in the realms
of the heavens (angels and spirits) and
on earth (mankind) (Cfr. Ws. 7:27-8:4, 1 Jn. 2:29).
God and Mother Nature make a
single body in an eternal marriage made by God Himself, binding Himself to her
in an everlasting and perpetual covenant of unity and dignity, to fruitfully
bring forth children for Himself, and thus a family of his own, with God as the
head of all creation (Cfr. Ep. 1:23), as the Father without end (Cfr. Is. 64:7;
Tb. 13:4), and as husband to Mother Nature (Cfr. Is. 54:5).
Thus, in the very beginning, God
has created his own family in an extended and expanded dominion to be his home,
his dwelling and his kingdom forever. And because He is God, He must be very
happy living in a single unified body with the rest of His creation, with
Mother Nature as His spouse by his Holy Spirit, as a fruitful and virgin mother
to all God’s children.
By his irrevocable will, God
ordained the marriage covenant to be seen in the context of a single body or
organic unity, as he exemplified it in his divine marriage with Mother Nature,
for the perpetuity, endurance and happiness of all marriages.
- The first human couple
Setting himself up as an example of a happy and fruitful marriage, God
put the
first man and
woman whom he created to be the first human couple and married them with these
words: “Man shall leave father and mother and joins himself to his wife and
they shall become one body” (Cfr. Gn. 2:24; Mt. 19:5; Ep. 5:31) as a
perpetual and unbreakable law for all marriages under God.
This marriage between man and
wife as forming one body has been deeply emphasized by Jesus Christ when he
said: “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. This
is why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body. They are
no longer two, these form one body” (Mk. 10:6-8).
To further clarify this one body
in marriage, the Apostle Paul used the phrase “one flesh” to denote human
marriages (Cfr. 1 Cor. 6:16).
- Christ and His Church
In order to restore the unhappy state of all
human marriages which were not done “in the Lord” (Cfr. 1 Cor 7:10,39), Christ,
the Son of God, came to realize for us a marriage which is spiritual and divine
in nature, which is no other than His marriage with the Church, copying the
“one body, one flesh” principle both embodied in the divine and human law for
marriages (Cfr. Ep. 5:21-33).
The Church is Christ’s bride
(Apo. 19:8, 21:2), and she is being symbolized by the New Jerusalem coming down
from heaven for the wedding with the Lamb, Jesus Christ, her spouse. She is the
new Eve who will fulfill the ancient prophecy regarding the woman whose
offspring shall crush the head of the serpent and whose heel it shall strike in
retaliation (Cfr. Gn. 3:15; Apo. 12).
Since we are members of the
Church, we are Christ’s virgin bride who had been given to him in marriage
(Cfr. 2 Co. 11:2).
To be an effective marriage
therefore, this marriage of the Church with Christ has been compared by the
Apostle Paul in the analogy of the one body of Christ: “Now therefore you
together are Christ’s body: but each of you is a different part of it” (1
Co. 12:27f).
In other words, Christ’s body,
which is the Church, must function in a teleological relationship just like any
organic body (=one part exists because and for the sake of the others and
therefore each must always look into the well-being and welfare of the other
parts in the spirit of love and unity).
Christ has set in a most certain
and clear way this teleological relationship as functional also within his own
body, the Church, as His spouse. That is why the Apostle Paul said: “Christ’s
love for the Church is realized when, as her head, he saved the whole body and
sacrificed himself for her to make her holy” (Cfr. Ep. 5:23-25). Therefore,
the Church reciprocates Christ’s love by submitting herself to Chrit in
everything (Cfr. Ep. 5:24).
- The Church as Mother
For the sake of understanding the role of the
Christian families in evangelism (i.e.,
the belief that
evangelization work and effort is the only solution to all the problems and
situations besetting man and his society), we have to understand the role of the
Church as Mother.
The Church, as the new Eve and
Bride of Christ, is to become, by God’s will and plan, the mother for the
redeemed children of God, as adopted sons of God through Jesus Christ (Cfr. Ep.
1:5). These are the Christians who submitted themselves to the will of Christ
and became his brothers in the spirit (Cfr. Rom. 8:29).
Through the work of
evangelizatiion, the Word of God (=the pre-existing Logos), is announced and
implanted like a human seed that is being implanted in a mother’s womb (Cfr. 1
P. 1:23), on the hearts of those people who accept it in complete faith and
trust in the God who speaks and proposes to them.
The message of the evangelizer (=
“angel”, messenger) is that God’s son, namely the Christian, is going to
be born in the hearts of those people. Those who accept the announcement (= “kerygma”,
proclamation) will be implanted in and gestated by the Church in her womb, and
for some period of time, several long years depending upon their openness and
cooperation to God’s grace, will be formed (=initiated slowly into the
Christian mysteries, cfr. Ep. 1:9f), like a natural mother forming a baby in
her womb, or like the Virgin Mary forming Jesus Christ in her womb, for a
period of nine long months.
This gestation of the Christian
took place in a school of faith, called by the primitive Church as “catechumenate”,
with its several steps and periods of initiation, marked by entrances into
three doors, viz., the Entrance, the Martyrium, and the Anastasis, to which the
candidates are conducted and led through long and systematic catechesis and
rites at the end of every major period.
When the time has come that one
is ready to receive the Sacrament of Faith, which is Baptism (=the water of
rebirth and regeneration, cfr. Jn. 3:4-5; Ep. 5:26; Tt. 3:5; 1 P. 3:21), after
being formed in the school of faith, the man who entered before with all his
natural defects, having now been formed after the character of Christ, will be
born again as a child of God, who is the Christian, a new creature with a
transformed heart in the likeness of Christ.
This child will be born by Holy
Mother Church through the water of Baptism, and the baptismal font will serve
as her womb. This child is now a new creature, from a sinful man full of the
defects and bad habits of the old Adam, to a new man “no longer of flesh and
blood, but born from above through water and the Spirit” (Cfr. Jn. 3:3),
patterned unto the new Adam, Jesus Christ.
This is what Jesus was explaining
to the learned Nicodemus regarding a sinful man being “born again” by
God, how an old creature of the flesh with a heart full of lust, greed and hate
is being transformed into a new creature of the spirit with a heart full
of peace, joy and love through the power
of the resurrected spirit of Jesus Christ risen and alive in the Church.
This transformation of man
happens every time the Church does and accepts her role as Mother for those
people who are called by God through his Word to accept baptism as a new birth
and to nourish them later with the “milk of spiritual honesty” (Cfr. 1 P. 2:2)
through the Eucharistic life, a life of continuing praise and daily worship to
God. Thus, the Church becomes mother to all Christians, as a result of being
the spiritual spouse and bride of Christ.
- The Holy Family of Nazareth
In her role as mother to Christians, Holy
Mother Church takes the lead from the
Holy Family of
Nazareth, composed by the family of Joseph, Mary and Jesus, who lived in
complete faith and trust in God’s word and exemplified the spirit of humility,
simplicity and praise in their family life.
Joseph, the foster father of Jesus,
is the servant of God’s word and the model of complete faith and trust in God
when he accepted his foster-fatherhood to Jesus Christ, by accepting Mary when
she was already with child through the Holy Spirit (Cfr. Mt. 1:18). He made
this sacrifice on his honor and reputation in order for the Son of God to be
born in a normal human family through a virgin birth as prophesied in the
Scriptures long time ago, “And the virgin shall conceive and give birth
to a son and they will call him Immanuel” (Mt. 1:19, 23). When the
newly-born child was threatened with imminent death, Joseph took his family to
Egypt and then back to the land of Israel, again in fulfillment of an ancient
prophecy about this child (Mt. 2:15; Cfr. Ho.11:1). Obedient to the Jewish Law,
Joseph and Mary went to Jerusalem for the yearly feast of Passover with the boy
Jesus to show complete submission to the injunctions of an old religion (Lk.
2:42). And when Jesus was growing up, Joseph fulfilled his fatherhood by
providing for his stepson an honest trade and decent livelihood by employing
him in his carpentry shop (Mt. 13:55, Mk. 6:3; Jn. 6:42).
Mary accepted in faith the
announcement of the angel that she will bear and be a mother to a son of God
through the overshadowing power of the Holy Spirit, and that for nine months to
gestate him in her womb until she is given to birth Jesus Christ, the son of
God. By God’s plan, Mary became a mother to Jesus Christ up to the time of his
ministry (Cfr. Mt. 12:46), at the foot of the cross while he hanged crucified
(Cfr. Jn. 19:26), and at the meetings and at the inauguration of the Church at
Pentecost (Cfr. Acts 1:14).
Jesus lived under the authority
of his parents, until he increased in wisdom, in stature and in the favor of
God and men in complete submission and dedication to them as a devout family
member (Lk. 2:51-52).
6.
Mary, figure of the Church
The role of Mary in the work of
salvation is to be the mother of the Saviour, Jesus Christ, and to be the prototype of the Church as
Mother to all that would come to Jesus Christ as Christians. Mary, as the
mother of Jesus Christ, therefore is the figure, the icon and the image of the
Church in her role as Mother in the work of salvation.
Mary’s role in relation to her Jesus
Christ and the Church’s role in relation to the Christians, according to the
understanding of the Church has the same, though parallel, meaning. For this
reason, the primitive Church used one and the same icon to portray Mary and the
Church as that of a mother carrying a child in her arm (Madonna and child)
in order to teach the distinctive role of both in the dispensation of salvation
to the world, namely the formation of the child of God, through the work of evangelization.
7. Obligations of
the Church to families
The obligation of the Church to
all her children is to give herself completely as a mother. This involves the
idea of conceiving, gestating, nurturing and feeding in an atmosphere of a
spiritual family.
The Church conceives and implants
in her womb (=the baptismal font) her prospective members (aspirants) through evangelization, where she announces
the message of salvation in a kerygmatic way.
The Church gestates her initiates
(novices or catechumens)
through baptismal process, where she forms and teaches them the mysteries of faith through catechesis and the celebration of the
liturgy.
The Church nurtures her new members (neophytes),
after having been reborn and washed in the baptismal waters, through the
Eucharist where she feeds them into the Christian life with the bread of
instruction into the word of God and the celebration of the Sacrament of the
Body and Blood of Christ in the context of a Eucharistic meal.
All these works of the Church is
in keeping with the Lord’s injunction to her before he returned back to the
Father, “Go, therefore, make disciples of all the nations; baptize them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to
observe all the commands I gave you” (Cfr. Mt. 28:19-20).
8.
The nature of Christian families
By reason of their incorporation
into the Body of Christ, all Christians had been admitted into the family of
God with Christ as the head of the body, the Church (Cfr. 1 Co. 11:3) through
the Eucharistic life. Hence, the sacrament of marriage which the Christian
couple received at the beginning of their family life proclaims this
incorporation into the body of the Church whose head is Christ. The sacrament of
marriage is its symbol for the couple, where they proclaim to the Christian
assembly present at the marriage ceremony that they are going to pattern their
married life according to the spirit of Christ in His marriage with the Church.
This willingness of the Christian couple to live the same spirit in their own
marriage is called by the Apostle Paul as marriage “in the Lord”, meaning, a
marriage conducted and lived according to the spirit and teachings of the Lord
Jesus Christ in regard to family life which the couple pledges to keep as a
personal covenant between them for as long as they live.
9.
Teachings of the Lord regarding family life
a. The father of
the family and husband:
What is his stature and his responsibilities in life as both husband and
father of the family, according to Jesus Christ?
In Matthew 19:5f., we read: “A
man shall leave his father and mother, and cling to his wife, and the
two become one flesh.” Are we not
aware that all divorces and the separation of spouses, with the resulting
delinquency problem among children, are the direct result of the infraction of
this teaching about the man not leaving his father and mother in order to cling
to his wife?
When a man takes his wife to stay
and live with his own parents or at his in-law’s house, he directly violates
this particular injunction. As a result, one of the couple will experience
enormous difficulties in adjusting to the original family members as these
exert more influence to their own member than to his or her own spouse. Parents
in this set-up are always tempted to favor their own child than their in-law
and thus they cause the eventual break of the couple, and the marriage asundered.
In First Peter 3:7, it says: “in
the same way, husbands must always treat their wives with consideration in
their life together, respecting a woman as one who, though she may be the
weaker partner, is equally an heir to the life of grace.”
There are two important points
which we must underline in this text.
First, the apostle Peter used the
phrase “in their life together” in order to clarify the gospel
injunction which says “(man) must cling to his wife and the two become
one body” (Cfr. Mt. 19:8), or the
original injunction in the book of Genesis which says: “(man) joins himself
to his wife, and they become one body” (Cfr. Gn. 2:24; Ep. 5:31).
It is clear what is important in
this phrase. It is always the preservation of the unity and the life of
togetherness between husband and wife.
A husband must carefully consider
the disastrous effect of living a
separate life, with his own separate interests, hobbies, leisure, friends
and acquaintances from his wife and
family.
Married life entails a life of
togetherness and unity for the couple and the children because they are forming
just one single organic body. An organic body cannot exist if all its parts are
living separately or apart from each other.
The husband is responsible for
protecting and preserving the unity of
the family because he is its head, whose function is to decide which is good or
bad for his family.
The two consequences of
separation, of the husband and wife living separately, are: 1. juvenile
delinquency and 2. infidelity.
Delinquent children are the
result when the parents are unable to provide guidance and close supervision to
their children.
Infidelity on the part of the
couple is the result when both partners are no longer happy being with each
other and they try to seek enjoyment with other partners apart from each other.
In order to prevent separation,
here is the advice of the Apostle Paul: “A husband must not send his wife away”
(1 Cor. 7:11c).
The second point being raised by
the Apostle Peter in this text is that of husbands treating their wife with
consideration. This point may also be considered in the light of what the
Apostle Paul said: “Husbands, love your wives and treat them with
gentleness” (cfr. Col. 3:19).
Consideration and gentleness are
the marks of a true gentleman husband. Women in general should be treated like
breakable crystals. The situation of all women and of a wife in particular,
must be understood in the light of God’s word found in Genesis 3:16: “I will
multiply your pains in childbearing, you shall give birth to your children in pain. Your yearning must
be for your husband, yet he will lord it over you.”
A gentle husband must indeed
consider the seriousness and gravity of God’s sentence to the woman. Being
considerate and gentle with her wife’s condition all the time, especially when
she is with child, is likewise a mark of a true Christian husband. He must remember that the woman was given to
him with the original intention that she is his helpmate (Cfr. Gn. 2:18,20) or
as to be his help and support (Cfr. Tob.8:6).
The woman, with the help and
support of her husband, will be able to “save herself by childbearing” (Cfr. 1
Tim. 2:15) and thus she will attain salvation and righteousness from God.
The Apostle Paul was specific
about this point when he said: “In the same way, husbands must love
their wives as they love their own bodies; for a man to love his wife is for
him to love himself. A man never hates his own body, but he feeds it and looks
after it” (Ep. 5:28f).
In Ep. 5:23 the Apostle Paul
stated that, “since as Christ is
head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the
head of his wife.”
The Apostle Paul was talking
here about the headship of the husband over his wife. Headship of the husband
means the office of presiding over his family, his wife included, with two
specific responsibilities: 1. deciding (decision-making) and, 2.
providing (for the needs of his family).
The wisdom of both these unity
of togetherness and the dignity of headship, if attained by the husband, will
guarantee him salvation and the righteousness from God as it will “deliver man
from his fault” (Ws. 10:1).
Even the stature of older men in the family is found included in the
gospel as found in the advice of the Apostle Paul to Titus that says: “Older man should be reserved,
dignified, moderate, and sound in faith and love and constancy” (Tt. 2:2).
This list of traits for older men was meant by the Apostle Paul as to
mean the following: to be reserved includes the idea of “to be cautious, prudent, wary or to learn to wait a
while before acting.”; to be
dignified means to be honorable and respectable in speech and bearing; to
be moderate means to be neutral, staying at the middle, to be virtuous and
judicious; and to be sound means to be without fault or defect. And, hence, to be sound in faith and love
and constancy means to be without fault or defect in the matter of faith,
of love and constancy.
b. Mother of the
family and wife:
The responsibilities of the
wife and mother of the family includes the following: 1. To regard and
respect her husband (Ep. 5:21,33b); 2. She must not leave her
husband (1 Cor. 7:10), 3. She must give way to her husband. (Col.
3:18), 4. She must be obedient to her husband ( Tt. 2:5; 1 P. 3:1), 5. She
must recognize the husband’s authority over her by wearing her hair long
as a head cover (1 Co. 11:3); 5. She must wear suitable clothes
and dress moderately (1 Tm. 2:9ff.; 1 P. 3:3f), 6. She must not teach
or tell a man what to do ( 1 Tm. 2:12), and lastly, 7. Women must remain
quiet at meetings, and must ask their husbands at home for any questions
to ask. (1 Co. 14:34-35).
Elder women, as advised by the Apostle Paul, are supposed
to be teachers of right behavior and show younger women how to love their
husbands and love their children, to be
sensible and chaste, to work in their
homes, to be gentle, and to do as their husbands tell them (Cfr. Tt. 2:3-5).
Widows who are left without
anybody can give themselves to God and consecrate all their days and nights to
petitions and prayer by enrolling themselves into the Church’s Order of Widows
(Cfr. 1 Tm. 5:5,9).
c.
Parents and children:
The duties and responsibilities
of parents in relation to their children and vice versa are outlined in the
following texts:
1. 2 Co. 12:14 – “Children are not
expected to save up for their parents, but
parents for children.”
2. Col. 3:20f .-- “Children,
be obedient to your parents always, because that is
what
pleases the Lord.”
3. 1 Tim. 5:4,8 – “(Children
and grandchildren) are to learn first of all to do
their duty to their own families and repay their debt to their
parents, because this is what pleases God”
4. Ep. 6:1-3 - “Children, be obedient to your parents in
the Lord—that is your
duty. The first commandment that has a promise attached to it
is:
Honour your father and mother, and the promise is: and
you shall
prosper and have long life in the land. And parents,
never drive your children to resentment but in bringing them
up
correct them and guide them as the Lord does.”
d.
Marital act between husband and wife.
Since sex is always a danger,
husband and wife must give to each other what each one has the right to expect
in terms of affection and the marital act and never to refuse except by mutual
consent and this for a time only in order to give way for the time of prayer
(Cfr. 1 Co. 7:3f.).
10. The Mission for Families in the modern
world
After considering and studying
seriously the import and gravity of the foregoing statements of the gospel
which have direct bearing on families of every generation of humanity, the Christian Church recognizes the important
role the families have to perform in order
to dedicate themselves to the work of evangelization and to accept the
challenging situation besetting all families today in the spirit of evangelism.
It is God’s plan for the world
that his gifts of fruitful life and love and unity be shared by all his
creatures, and that this sharing should occur in the context of the family and
for it to serve the principal purposes for its existence in the human society,
which are the following:
- To socialize the young;
- To prepare them to live in the
existing culture.
- To continue that culture;
- To transmit in turn the culture
to their offspring.
Although the effects of sin
have not destroyed the institution of the family during the flood (Cfr. Gn.
7:13-16), yet Christ came to restore the original dignity of headship between
husband and wife and the unity of togetherness with their children that should
characterize all families by the obedience of the woman to man, by man to Christ,
and by Christ to God (Cfr. 1 Co. 11:3). This obedience to God’s will is clearly exemplified by the submission of Holy
Mother Church to Christ, the head of His Body, in everything.
Hence, these gifts should also
be shared in whatever social context and condition the family should find
itself in, whether in an extended family of the agricultural society, or the
atomic type of family of the industrial mode of production, or the expanded
form of family we find in our present cyber space civilization, and that the
teachings of the gospel on families should be propagated, taught and be held in
primacy.
This is pure evangelism within
and for families. By God’s original design and plan, the continuous birth and
rebirth of creation will occur when all families under God will have the
strength to live up to its mission and vocation as willing cooperators of the
creative and re-creative action of God and to restore the peace and stability
of the family through a renewed evangelism among communities of families and
nations.
