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5th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 6, 2005.
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<?/smaller><?/smaller><?/smaller>St. Paul to the Corinthian Church: “All I want to know is Jesus Christ and him crucified”. Like Paul, we too come to this first part of Mass, the Liturgy of the Word, hoping to encounter Jesus Christ, to hear of him, learn his way, how to live it. In the second part of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Eucharist, we offer the perfect act of praise and thanksgiving -God offering the perfect act of sacrifice for our salvation, the Beloved Son. We receive him, Jesus’ body, soul and divinity and are consumed by him, made into his image so that when the Father sees us he sees in us the image of his beloved.

Into this moment a jarring note: same-sex unions. Perhaps you are sick of hearing of this issue. Maybe you even disagree with the Church’s position. However, this is an issue which is currently front page news, one made so by the Government and lobby groups. But God always knows how to take the best out of any situation. And so perhaps the time to reflect on the meaning of marriage in our Tradition, in our revelation from God in Jesus is now. Let us “ponder on these things” as Mary did whenever she encountered a Revelation concerning her Son.

We begin with the Pharisees who ask Jesus if it is lawful to divorce one’s wife as Moses taught. Jesus informs them it was only because of their hardness of heart, their refusal to love, that Moses permitted them to divorce. And Jesus continues, telling them that it was not so in the beginning, that God had ordered it so that a man would leave his parents and he and his wife would become one.

What Jesus was referring to was the first two chapters of the book of Genesis, the creation accounts. In these accounts we hear this: “And God created man, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.” A man and woman are to image God. In what way? God is “unity” and community”: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit -three persons (community) in “one” divine nature. A couple image God in their mutual attraction and from this union comes children: father, mother and children - three principles (community) in “one” family.

Jesus has more to offer us in this snippet of scripture by referring to “in the beginning”. This is the state of original innocence. After the creation of the man and the woman we hear the Genesis authors tell us, “And they were naked and were not ashamed”. We obviously need clothing, so “nakedness” is a metaphor designed to throw light on “not ashamed”. It seems, in the stage of original innocence, when a man and woman came together -due to the lack of shame- they were able to give themselves utterly to one another. There was no shadows, no hidden agendas, just purity of intention. The gift of self to each other given freely was received by each other completely. This giving and receiving was an actualization of one’s self, one’s personality - now the individuals, man and woman, know the end of their solitude in their union.

With the damage to our human nature caused by what we term sin we see another extreme. A coming together of a man and woman in which domination, possession and manipulation control relationships. Jesus is telling us that now with this new age, in Him, that man and woman in the sacrament of holy matrimony can, with grace, attain to this original state in the union of marriage. This is not to say that life is perfect, that we do not fail due to blindness, weakness and sin. But it is clear that he believes this is possible with grace. And many Catholics live this reality, not without struggle and effort. But they live it.

This examination of God’s revelation on marriage is the perspective of Faith. We can also look at marriage from the perspective of “natural law”, that which is observable to all people. In the “language of the body” we notice two essential elements that are interrelated, dependent on each other and inseparable, the “unitive” and “procreative” elements of marriage. “Unitive” in that the feminine and masculine body is designed for each other sexually; this unitive aspect is an exciting, passionate and an ecstatic experience for the couple; it is an experience which the couple will have all the days of their married life, consoling and comforting them in sorrow and marking their times of joy.

Inseparable from this element is the “procreative” element. Almost every sexual encounter has the potential to give new life. When this new life comes into existence, this child has the “right” to the presence of both its mother and father in the same home: a “right” to their protection, support and guidance all the days of its life. In the language of the body, observable in the natural law, this is the family: the fruit of marriage. Something open for all to see and observe.

This past Wednesday was the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple. Some two months after the incarnation, Mary and Joseph bring the child to the temple to offer sacrifice for him. The elderly prophet Simeon comes to them and observing the child begins to praise God,

At last all powerful master
You give leave to your servant to go in peace
according to your promise.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
a light to enlighten the gentiles
and give glory to Israel your people.

And Simeon moves from praise to prophecy telling Joseph and Mary two things. That Mary would suffer with a sword which would pierce her heart - the crucifixion. And that the infant child would be the cause of the rising and falling of many in Israel, to reveal the secret thoughts of may.

Sad to say this is also true today. Christ is a stumbling block for many Catholic politicians and not a few Catholics in the pews who are struggling and failing to accept this teaching on marriage.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus doesn’t have a problem naming it. “You are the salt of the earth”. You have to witness for me and if you loose Faith in me you cannot do it. More subtly, “You are the light of the world, a city on a hill top cannot be hidden; no-one lights a lamp and puts a cover over it but lets it shine. You too must let your good works shine so that God may be glorified.” Here he is telling us that we cannot be the source of the light in us, human wisdom is not to be the light. The light that shines in us must have its source in God, God’s wisdom is the light which must shine in us.

“All I want to know is Jesus Christ and him crucified.” With St. Paul all we want to know is the Truth, the Way and the Life - Jesus Christ. “And him crucified”: with St. Paul again, we don’t mind that we will be insulted, spat upon, rejected and even physically hurt “for the sake of the name”.

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