Willothepooh

Gen
2:18-24; Heb 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16

   I must admit that the Word of God
today is one of the most difficult to preach. It speaks about what God intended
from the very beginning of time as the ideal marriage relationship—two
people should become one flesh; what God has joined let no man separate;
whoever divorces and remarries commit adultery.

    I said it is difficult to preach. Why? Because one of my
own sisters is divorced, one of my aunties is a second wife to a married man,
many of my close friends are either divorcees or married to divorcees. And, on
top of that, some of you here are divorcees. But having said that, as a priest
it is my duty to preach according to the teaching of the Church, which I,
without reservation, accept and believe.

   The Catholic Church teaches that
a marriage should be marked by unity—it is a total sharing of body, mind
and spirit of a husband and a wife. The Catholic Church also teaches that a
marriage should be a permanent relationship—meaning, only death do them
part. That is an ideal marriage, which is also the original plan of God.

   But we don’t live in an ideal
world. We live in a real world where too often selfishness overpowers love,
taking dominates giving, and some marriages end in divorce. What have the
Church to say about it?

   To answer this, recall how Jesus
condemn adultery, but forgave the woman caught in adultery; how he showed
compassion toward the Samaritan woman at the well who had lived with five
husbands; and how he gave Peter a new start after Peter had denied him and run
away.

  Do we continue to strive for
ideal marriages? Yes, with all our resources. Do we condemn divorced people
whose marriage fell short of the ideal? No, we condemn divorce but not the
divorcee.

  The letter to the Hebrews, in the
second reading, tells us that Jesus took our human nature, and thus we are of
the same human stock as he, and so he can call us his brothers and sisters. The
divorcees too are of the same human stock as you and I. They are our brothers
and sisters.

  Let’s pray that
God will continue to shower His grace to all married couples so that they will
always remember the origin and purpose of marriage; so that they always strive
for the ideal marriage. But let’s also not forget to pray for all the
divorcees, that they will continue to experience God’s forgiveness and love in
their lives; and especially, so that they will find a place in the Church.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 9th, 2006 at 5:04 pm and is filed under Sunday Homily. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.