Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Osmond Anike

Readings:

First Reading: Genesis 2:18-24 – A man and his wife become one body

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 127(128) – May the Lord bless us all the days of our life.

Second Reading: Hebrew 2:9-11 – The One who sanctifies is the brother of those who are sanctified.

Gospel: Mark 10:2-16 – What God has united, man must not divide.

In the gospel of today, there are two apparently unrelated stories that Mark told us. The first concerns the question of divorce in marriage and the other concerns the issue of little children. A casual reading of this text would give the impression that the main emphasis of the reading is all about marriage, especially when read in the context of similar theme in the first reading which talks about Adam and the need for a helpmate. But a deeper reflection on the readings suggests that the emphasis of Mark in the two stories is not so much about marriage as about the kingdom of God. Although the question marriage is evident, it is the theme of the Kingdom of God that runs through the two seemingly unrelated stories.

The first story about divorce was a question posed by the Pharisees in order to trap Jesus. Every faithful Jewish person looked at Moses as a great liberator and never questioned anything purported to have come out of his mouth. When Jesus started claiming to be the Messiah, the Pharisees wanted to put him in direct conflict with Moses so that they could then argue that this man who was opposed to Moses couldn’t have been the Messiah. They therefore asked him a question regarding the purported instruction from Moses concerning divorce. Jesus, who was aware of the trap being set for him, had to be careful with his answers. He first asked to know what Moses actually commanded them. When they pointed out that Moses permitted them to divorce, Jesus then decided to go beyond their interpretation of Moses’ injunction and trace the institution of marriage back to the creation of Adam and Eve. He then quoted the text of Genesis read in the first reading to back up his claim. Apparently, the people were misapplying Moses’ injunction. It became customary for husbands to divorce their wives on any flimsy excuse ranging from infidelity to trivial issues like not cooking a favourite dish of the husband, or for being a bad cook, or for raising her voice when talking, or again for the simple reason that the husband saw a better-looking woman. Yes, it was legal at that time for a husband to divorce his wife on the basis that he saw a more beautiful woman which he wanted to marry. All that the husband was required to do was to issue a certificate of divorce, and he was free to marry the newfound woman. As strange as this might appear to us today, it was completely normal and legal at the time of Jesus. On the other hand, such liberty was not accorded women of his days. They were not permitted to divorce their husbands as freely as the husbands could divorce them. Jesus was then condemning the misinterpretation and misapplication of the instruction that Moses gave them when he told them that it was not like that from the beginning of creation. It was God, according him, who made them male and female from the beginning, and joined them together in love. It is neither Moses nor the priests that marry people. They marry themselves in the presence of God. The priests are only witnesses to that act. The system whereby one party in the union decided at whims and caprices to arbitrarily divorce the other was what Jesus was condemning. He is saying that a man who arbitrarily sends his wife out in that fashion commits adultery and equally induces his wife to commit adultery because she is, by his action, compelled to find a man to support her (in that epoch women were not expected to be self-sufficient, but rather depended entirely on what men provided for them). These are actions that are not congruent with the kingdom of God and therefor, are not to be sanctioned.

The second story concerns little children and their encounter with Jesus. The disciples were concerned that the presence of children was much of a distraction to Jesus. But Jesus, as usual, used the occasion to qualify the kingdom of God as akin to little children: “Anyone who does not welcome the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it”. When you look into the eyes of a child, the first thing you see is innocence. A child does not worry about fame or wealth. A child is focused on playing his favourite game; he does not condemn others who do not play the same game. If you teach a child to pray the Lord’s Prayer, he does not deride others who pray the Hail Mary. Compare this to those of us who think that we have “grown” in spirituality to the extent that our obsession becomes the condemnation of every person whom we perceive as different from us. Our so-called prayer is nothing but a session devoted to condemnation of every other person who sees spirituality differently. It is strange how people think they can kneel down to pray and succeeds in not actually praying but in condemning others, and still thinks that when they end it with Amen, God is going to answer such prayer. We read again and again the parable of Jesus concerning the Pharisee and the publican who went to the temple to pray; and how it was the publican rather than the Pharisee who went home justified. Still we are no different from the Pharisees. If we devote half of the time we spend in condemning others to actually pray, we would be better Christians. Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God has nothing to do with what we imagine it to be. It is not a question of marriage or divorce; it is not a question of who has the correct formula and who has not; it is not a question who condemns others the most, etc. The catechism teaches us simply that the purpose of life, and why God created us is to know him, to love him, to serve him, and to be happy with him in this life and for all eternity. Many of the things we waste our energies on are not actually part of the purpose of life; and they can never enhance our chances of making it to the kingdom of God.

Since the readings also talked about marriage, we shall end this reflection with the 12 rules for a happy marriage as proposed by Ann Landers, which I read from Fr. Tony and found very interesting. Fr. Tony, however, included biblical texts to the original rules of Landers to show that they are actually biblical (note however that the quotations are not verbatim but must be inferred):

1. Never both be angry at once (Proverbs 19:11)
2. Never yell at each other unless the house is on fire (Proverbs 21:23)
3. Yield to the wishes of the other as an exercise in self-discipline, if you can’t think of a better reason (Col. 3:18-19; Ephesians 5:21)
4. If you have a choice between making yourself or your spouse look good–choose your spouse (Philippians 2:3-4; Matthew 19:19)
5. If you feel you must criticize, do so lovingly (Ephesians 4:15)
6. Never bring up a mistake of the past (Philippians 3:13-14)
7. Neglect the whole world rather than each other (Ephesians 5:25-31)
8. Never let the day end without saying at least one complimentary thing to your life partner (Proverbs 31:26)
9. Never meet without an affectionate greeting (Proverbs 5:18-19)
10. When you make a mistake, talk it out and ask for forgiveness (James 5:16)
11. Remember, it takes two to make an argument. The one who is wrong is the one who will be doing most of the talking (James 3:5-8)
12. Never go to bed mad (Ecclesiastes 7:9; Colossians 3:8).