27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today's Gospel reading features Jesus' teaching on marriage which was difficult for the disciples then and remains even harder for the New Zealand society of today. Jesus rebuffs the Pharisees and: "Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter." (Mk 10: 10) Clearly, the uncompromising attitude of Jesus towards marriage has never been popular. In addition, Jesus told them and therefore us, that: "But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female'." (Mk 10: 6) The reason why the teaching is difficult is because it focuses not on human weakness and fallibility but on God's will. His desire was that human beings be true, united and committed existed from the beginning. We can see from the evidence of our own family and friends, let alone wider society, that this is hard to do. What is the answer? Do we simply forget about God and do away with marriage and the laws pertaining to it? St Paul would surely answer: "What then should we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would have not known sin." (Rm 7: 7) We need to recognize that: "... the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good" (Rm 7: 12) because our heavenly Father, also, is holy, just and good. The law on marriage and other matters calls us to holiness and helps us to recognize our faults: "but sin is not reckoned when there is no law." (Rm 5: 13) We need, however, not to stop at that. In the Gospel reading we continue on to hear about Jesus welcoming the children. This gives us our answer. We cannot abide by the law alone. We need to have trust and hope in Christ Jesus so that we may be healed and forgiven. In doing so we will be able to advance in holiness and see that the law is indeed good as the Father willed it from the beginning. Again, with St Paul, we can say: "So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!". (Rm 7: 21-25)