27TH Sunday Ordinary Time October 6, 2024

Marriage!  The readings today speak to us about the creation of man and woman and their union with one another in marriage.  Today it is so difficult to speak about marriage because our culture is against the Christian idea of marriage.  We have to be able to speak clearly and yet not condemn anyone.

The Gospel is from Saint Mark.  The main point that Jesus wants us to understand is that divorce is not acceptable in the plan of God.  It is important that we recognize again that Jesus is arguing against a culture where divorce was easy and not challenged.  This is very similar to much of modern culture.  Divorce is widely accepted everyone to that point that many are suggesting that there should not even be marriage.  Just let people form relationships with anyone else and stay together until it no longer works!

For Jesus, marriage is clearly a gift from God.  Marriage is between a man and a woman.  Marriage is also about having children.  Marriage is a celebration of creation and of God’s love.  In much of our modern culture, people no longer believe in God.  People believe that marriage is just any two people making a commitment to one another.  Many today do not want to have children in a marriage because it complicates the marriage.  Finally, marriage is seen as something only on the human level and is not seen as a sacrament.

We Catholics have an enormous evangelization to do in our modern world.  Even simply to state the truth about how our Holy Scriptures and our Catholic tradition see marriage is highly offensive to many people.  Our challenge is first to live the teachings of Jesus and the Church and then to speak fearlessly about God’s plan for marriage and children.  We could even become martyrs for stating clearly the traditional teachings. 

Let us walk with the Lord.

 Fr. Terry