Sunday word, 07 Oct 18

Twenty-seventh Sunday of the Year B (07 Oct 2018)

Gn 2. 18-24; Ps 128; Hb 2. 9-11; Mk 10. 2-16

Homily of Fr. Paul Panaretos, S.J.

Aware of What Jesus Asks

The cultural world of the bible differed so much from ours—from diet to dress; from geography to gender roles; from climate to understanding time and history, to name a few differences. They are so great that moderns can ask honestly, Can we understand the scrip-tures at all? Differences alone do not make understanding them difficult; the documents are fragile because we are so distant from them in outlook time and technology.

Take the roles of women. For us the roles of women extend across more of life; we can miss that Genesis sounds something we take for granted. Men and women are complementary: they enhance and accent each other. Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh sought to express that; so did they become one flesh. The unity the phrases spoke in Jesus’ day stressed the view of no divorce.

Two other cultural factors were at play: one, marriage united two families more than two individuals; the other, divorce shamed men in both families. Because marriage united families divorce sundered families: divorce was social. Women could not be shamed in the their culture: also not easy for us to appreciate. The bible’s culture was hypersensitive to honour and shame; the culture revolved around honour and shame. To regain family honour feuding would erupt and blood would be spilled.

Remarrying meant adultery in bible-culture. Adultery in Jesus’ world was a strategy; not at all how we think of it. Adultery was a strategy by which a man could shame another man; regaining honour meant bloodshed. To prevent bloodshed and social stability no remarrying was the way.

Norms of ancient Mediterranean culture shape the words of scripture we heard. Knowing that means not that we are suppose to ape their norms; instead we can begin to understand what Jesus asks: to seek the Creator’s intention for us, everyone and everything—from the beginning of creation God acts. Jesus’ heart was in sync with the God’s creating heart.

To seek the Creator’s intention behind and within everything keeps us close to Jesus here and now in our culture. While our culture differs from Jesus’ culture in many ways, placing ourselves in the heart of our Creator challenges us to live in sync with the intentions of the Creator. To pattern our lives on Jesus both helps us grow more in sync and rewards us with true peace in a too fragmented and fast-paced world.

In your daily 15 minutes with Jesus this week

• Rest in the life of our triune God.
• Ask Mary and your patron saint to present you to Jesus.
• Chat with him: praise him for dying and rising for us; thank him for giving us himself as our model for living.
• Ask him for grace to live more confidently as his friend and follower.
• Close saying slowly the Lord’s Prayer. His words, thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, is our daily plea to be in sync with our Creator’s caring intention for us, everyone and all around us.

Link to this homily’s Spiritual Exercise

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Wiki-images Garden of Eden by J Carlos CC BY-SA 3.0; Pharisees seek to entrap Jesus PD-US