Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today's Scripture
Today's reading give us three important lessons in regard to relationship, marriage and sexuality.
a) Firstly, human happiness cannot be found in the self. Human beings are not created to be happy by themselves. The original intention of the creator is that happiness is found in a relationship, in self-giving. The woman emerges out of Adam, of his giving, of his self. Happiness is found in loosing oneself for another. Happiness is found in giving of oneself to another. This is because God is community… “Let us make man in our image and likeness” (Gen 1:26). There are many expressions of community - committed friendships, the church community, the neighbourhood, society itself. The deepest and most intimate of these relationships is marriage. It is that relationship where self-giving is deepest and because it reflects God’s own life – the most sacred.
b) Secondly, Happiness is found in treating ‘the other’ as yourself. It is interesting that God made woman out of the rib bone. He did not make her out of a bone in the head so that she may not dominate him. He did not take a bone out of his leg so that he may not humiliate her. The woman came from the side, so that she may walk by his side and be his companion. Children come from the womb, the very centre of the human anatomy. We are created to be equal. God does not create inequality. Any inequality that exists is a human creation and to that extent that is a sin. Marriages break up because inequality enters into the relationship. The moment partners begin to talk about who is more important or whose decisions are more important, trouble is in sight. When issues of domination, power, or self-interest enters into marriage and it manifesting itself in fights, misunderstanding and even abuse. That marriage is bound to fail. True happiness can only be found in treating each other as equal.
c) Third, we must reflect on the original intention of the Creator in the gift of sexuality. If marriage is sacred, so is God’s gift of sexuality. Modern society has effectively succeeded in desacralizing sexuality or making sex a tool for sensuality rather than a sacred expression of committed love. Our contraceptive mentality is not going to regain the sacredness of sexual expression. Whether with regard to AIDs or teenage pregnancy people talk about safe-sex rather than putting sex in its right context – marriage. Wasn’t that was the original intention of the Creator? As Christians we have the obligation and duty make our children aware of the sacredness of sex. The original intention of the Creator is intimacy not sensuality, responsibility not promiscuity, fidelity not triviality. In the area of marriage and sexuality and in any area of our lives, to the extent that we move away from the original intention of the Creator, to that extent we are destroying the image of the Creator in us. True happiness can only be found in the original intention of the Creator.
- Fr. Satish Joseph