Texts taken from the “On Your Word” Missal September-October 2024

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
3rd week, psalter

FIRST READING

From the Book of Genesis (Gen 2:18-24)
The Lord God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable helper for him.” So the Lord God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky, and he brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals, but for the man no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken from the man, and he brought her to the man. Then the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for from man this one has been taken.” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two become one flesh. – The Word of God.

Commentary on the First Reading

We remain within the theme of humanity’s cooperation in God’s work, seen yesterday in the Gospel. God creates the world, but human beings play their part by giving names to things. Creatures receive their identity when they are known, named, and therefore also loved. But the highest point is reached with the arrival of “the suitable helper.” God could have created Eve alone, but this time the man gives a part of himself, the rib, to signify that the two are complementary, called to live the same life, to form a couple, becoming “one flesh.” Human beings, then, are complementary beings, turned toward another creature, made for communion and self-giving, and for this reason they fulfill their lives only by giving themselves and loving. “None of us lives for oneself” (Rom 14:7), the apostle Paul would later say, and this statement has its ancient root in the rib given and received. Every time we give ourselves and sacrifice for another, and especially in the marital relationship between husband and wife, we make present the divine principle of creation, acknowledge God the Creator, and exalt his work.

SECOND READING

From the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 2:9-11)
Brothers and sisters, we see Jesus, who was made for a little while lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. Indeed, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the leader who guides them to salvation perfect through suffering. For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one origin. Therefore, he is not ashamed to call them brothers. – The Word of God. 

Commentary on the Second Reading

Do we ever think that the One who sanctifies, the Lord Jesus through the Holy Spirit, and those who are sanctified, we poor human beings, can be considered “brothers”? Certainly, Jesus is God and we are human, but what consolation this awareness can give us in our spiritual struggle! At times we may become discouraged when we see our lives sacrificed in various ways, but nothing should trouble us if, returning to the roots of our being, we feel that we were created by God the Father and redeemed by God the Son, who through his suffering brought us out of the darkness of sin. Saint Ignatius of Antioch said that we are of the same blood and the same body as Christ… One gets the impression that we ourselves do not fully believe in our greatness and perhaps prefer to fly low so that we can cradle ourselves in our miseries. No: we are sparrows called to fly at the height of eagles. Have no fear: the One who “is not ashamed to call us brothers” is always with us, because through his offered suffering he is the “leader who guides us to salvation.”

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Mark (Mk 10:2-16)
At that time, some Pharisees approached Jesus and, to test him, asked whether it was lawful for a husband to divorce his wife. But he said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted a man to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation [Dio] 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.” In the house the disciples again questioned him about this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” And people were bringing children to him so that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them. – The Gospel of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the Day

The law concerning marriage underwent an evolution and development throughout sacred history. In the Old Testament, polygamy was permitted (Abraham, Jacob, and King David had several wives), and divorce of one’s wife was also provided for in certain specific cases. These were permissions granted by God to gradually educate humanity, after original sin, to return to the condition intended by God: man and woman as complementary partners and builders of one family, in chaste and fruitful mutual self-giving. On this level, divine law admitted certain exceptions, as mentioned, but with the intention that they would later be overcome and definitively abolished with the coming of Christ. “The hardness of your hearts” means a limited ability to understand the value of the family as enduring and faithful love toward one person alone, to see God’s presence in marriage, and to respect and love one’s husband or wife with patient, sacrificial, absolute love. Reaching this point required a school that lasted for centuries. Yet a clear sign of God’s thinking had already been given in the Old Testament: “I hate divorce” (Mal 2:16), God says in the Book of the Prophet Malachi. Had the Pharisees perhaps forgotten this verse?