THEME: WHAT GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER …
READINGS: Genesis 2:18-24/ Hebrews 2:9-11/ Mark 10:2-16
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Today’s first and gospel readings are usually heard at weddings. Though we are not at a wedding today, the message of the Lord may be for some of you a pre-marital counseling and for others, a post-wedding counseling. For this homily, I wish to reflect on the following statement of our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘What God has joined together, no one must separate.’
‘WHAT GOD HAS JOINED TOGETHER’
It is clear from the statement that it was God himself who instituted marriage. He, who designed and created the day and night, heavens and earth, land and sea, man and woman, is the very divine Person who designed and instituted marriage. Marriage, though is for humans, is not the creation of humans, nor was it a creation of society. It is clear from the first reading that, it was not Adam who said: ‘it is not good for the man to live alone’ (Gen. 2:18). Neither was he the one who, in search of companionship, created the woman for himself.
It was rather God who said that ‘it is not good for the man to live alone’ and, then, created Eve for mutual companionship with Adam. Did God not know from the beginning that Adam would need a human companion? He certainly knew that. Then, how do we explain his apparent lack of knowledge? God was like a sculptor who, working on his unfinished art project, stood aside for a moment to see what was left to complete his admirable work of creation, decided to implement what he already had on the drawing board: the creation of woman to crown his sculpturing process.
So, it is clear what God joined together: a man and a woman. Not a man and another man; nor a woman and another woman. So, people who promote or foster unions of the same sex should ask themselves if they have the right to alter ‘what God has joined together’. If an engineer designs and manufactures a diesel-engine car, the one who buys it, though becomes the owner, cannot choose to run his car on petrol. Similarly, though humans are those who marry, we should marry only in the way God has ‘engineered’ it: between a man and a woman.
Another point about how God engineered marriage is that the ratio between the man and woman is neither greater nor less than 1:1. That is why in both the first and gospel readings, we hear that the ‘two [not three, four, etc.] shall become one’. Polygamy is, therefore, not part of the original design of the divine Engineer.
‘NO ONE MUST SEPARATE’
A ‘made in Ghana’ car may be guaranteed for a year, whereas a ‘made in Germany’ Benz car may be guaranteed for more than five (5) years. Thus, the higher the technology, the longer the period guaranteed for the usage of the car. And what technology is higher than God’s? Thus, made by God himself, marriage is guaranteed for life: ‘What God has joined together let no human separate.’
Furthermore, as one has to take care of the Benz car (e.g. regular servicing, maintenance and repairs) so that it lasts him/her for at least the period guaranteed for it, so husbands and wives have their respective roles to play to ensure that, by God’s grace, their marriages last for life.
CONCLUSION
If you are married, may God grant you the graces to enable you regularly service, maintain and repair your marriage. Finally, to both the married and those intending to marry, may the Maker of marriage grant them happy marriages with their spouses all the days of their lives. Amen!
By Most Rev. John Kobina Louis
