Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
In our parish we are observing this year as the year of “Being Church at Home and Home at Church.” It is only fitting that we reflect seriously on today's readings that revolve around relationships, marriage, family and home. I want to do this in three points.
1.Before anything else, before God even spoke the first creative words, there was RELATIONSHIP. God as Father, Son and Spirit is a community of persons. God did not create man to be alone because God is community. No wonder then that man felt alone. Man’s search for a companionship and finally finding one mirrors the oneness between the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. Just like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one, so now man and woman are one. Notice that the word ‘love’ does not occur anywhere in the narrative of the man and woman. What is emphasized is self-giving. Creation is an act of God’s self-giving; the woman is formed from a rib taken from a man; the man and woman become one by their sacrificial leaving of father and mother and cleaving to one another. This is also love.
The parish staff attended a two day conference organized by the archdiocese of Cincinnati. The theme was “Revitalizing the Domestic Church.” At one of the workshops one of the points that emerged was how we are losing our vocabulary when it comes to God and spirituality. We are forgetting the language to talk about God and spirituality. Even when it comes to marriage or the priesthood, we run out of words to have a sensible conversation. Yes, love is a good word but it takes more than love for a marriage to work. Sacrifice, self-giving, cleaving, being community like God, friendship are important concepts and unless we understand them well, we will find it difficult to talk about them, teach them to our children, and more importantly, live them.
How can we recover what we have lost? The answer is Christ. Just as man and woman are called to become one, Christ becomes one with us at Christmas. It is important, then, that we radically turn to Christ. Marriage is called a sacrament in the Catholic tradition because the relationship between man and woman must mirror the relationship between Christ and his people. And this true of all of our relationships – they must all reflect the love of Christ for his people. It is Christ who gives us the language to talk about love, about sacrifice, about self-giving, about marriage, about family and about home. The more we turn to Christ the more will our life reflect his love. Our home and our relationship can become a way for us to live the life of Christ.
2.The gospel reading brings us in touch with another reality – the reality of separation and hurt. Our relationships do not always work out like we imagined them to do. People in the Old Testament struggled with this as much as we do. Moses allowed divorce. So how should we understand Jesus words about divorce in today’s gospel reading? Jesus says, “"Because of the hardness of your hearts he [Moses] 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." More than anything else, Jesus’ words point to the ideal that is placed before us. It would be great if friendships never broke, if parents and children never abandoned each other, or if marriages did not end up in separation. But these things do happen. The church does not approve of divorce not because she is out of touch with the reality, but because she, like Christ, must always point to the ideal. Meanwhile there are two things that need to be emphasized. First, sometimes separation is not a choice but a necessity. When this happens, separation from the spouse does not mean separation from God. It is an invalid and illegal attempt to marry that separates one from the church. Secondly, annulment is the church’s way of providing for a new beginning. God did not make us to be alone and so the church must provide a way when we fail to live up the ideal.
3.What do these readings mean for us in the year of being church at home and home at church? First with regard to being Church at home – that in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit the family gather to pray. If there is no prayer of any kind at home that we begin by praying together at meals. For those of us who do pray that we take it to the next level either by reading scripture or taking the time to share our reflections. Husbands and wives, the best way to insulate your marriage is to pray often as a couple. This is the best education for your children. This is also a great way to develop a language about God, about Christ, about sacrifice, about church and about home. Second, let us really try to think, talk and act like Jesus so that our relationships make reflect the life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. With regard to being home at church that we think of our self as community. Just as God is community we too must build community. There is someone out here who feels alone and lonely. There is no better way of being church than to be to each other what God is to us.
God knows that we do not like to be alone. So Christ remains with us in the bread and wine. God’s presence is with us always. As we receive that presence at communion, let us live that communion both here at church and at home. May we be church at home and home at church, Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph