It's All About Fidelity

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle B
Gn 2:18-24
Heb 2:9-11
Mk 10:2-16

I had a tough choice to make this week. You see, there’s an out for me in writing this homily. I could have chosen to preach on a nice, easy topic based on the first reading or even the second. But this gospel is hard. Hard to hear and hard to preach on. It’s even called one of the “hard sayings” of Jesus. Many of Jesus’ teachings are very nuanced, in fact, some are downright indecipherable. But some are in-your-face and straightforward. And they’re hard to take, because they sometimes go against how we live our lives. And they give us some tough choices to make.

We like to rationalize these sayings to make them fit into our own life choices. Even Matthew did this, adding an exception, “except in cases of lewd conduct” to his version of this story. He gave his listeners a way out of this divorce teaching. Even the disciples in Mark wanted Jesus to explain it more. They also were uncomfortable with it. They wanted Jesus to give them a way out. I mean, Moses did, didn’t he? Why couldn’t Jesus?

We can so easily explain things away when they’re uncomfortable. Especially when they’re in the bible or in church teaching. Divorce and remarriage? Jesus was just a chauvinistic man of his times, when women were subjugated. We’re much more evolved now. We have no fault divorce. He wasn’t really talking to us.

How about when Jesus commanded “Do this in memory of me?” I can remember Jesus on any day, not just on Sunday, and I don’t have to do it in a church. All of nature is God’s church. I’m a spiritual person, I’m just not religious. And besides, the Packers are playing today.

And what about “No one comes to the Father except through me?” Or “Unless you eat my body and drink my blood you have no life within you.” Or “My flesh is real food and my blood real drink.” Well, what about all the non Catholics out there who don’t have the Eucharist? What about all the baptized Catholics who don’t come to Mass? Jesus didn’t mean it literally. He was being metaphorical, wasn’t he? He was using hyperbole and parables and symbols.

And all those teachings of the church on abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, gay marriage, social justice, etc., etc. What right does the church have to tell me what I can and cannot do in the privacy of my own home, or in my own life? It’s just a bunch of old, uptight white guys who don’t understand what it’s really like to live in today’s world. And what right do they have to tell us what to do, after what they’ve done?

We are so good at rationalizing our behavior in all areas of our lives. Why not our faith as well? It’s amazing the mental gymnastics we sometimes perform. Yes, we don’t agree with some of the Church’s teachings, but all the other stuff we do more than makes up for it. Abortion is just one human rights issue. There are many more to consider. I can be for it if everything else I do is alright. In the end it’s how things are balanced, isn’t it? I mean, I’m a good person. What kind of a God would condemn me for that? Life is really not black and white. It’s a lot of grey.

As Obi Wan Kenobi said, “Only a Sith deals in absolutes.” We have made rationalization the ultimate good and God’s absolute commandments the ultimate evil. The dark side.

It’s really all about fidelity. Jesus’ teaching on divorce is about fidelity, not just to each other but to the way we were created and taught to live by our God. Do some teachings change as social norms change? Is marriage a changeable arrangement, as so many are claiming today? What about that first reading today, from Genesis? That’s not a Catholic thing or even a Jewish thing. It’s talking about how we were first created. It’s talking about how God set things up for all humanity. It’s timeless and for all time.

Adam and Eve were created for each other. It was so personal that they were literally made from one flesh. They were called to be faithful to one another and to God’s commandments for them. As long as they remained faithful things were ok. As soon as they tried to rationalize their behavior contrary to God’s plan things went wrong. As soon as they set themselves up as the ultimate judges of right and wrong they suffered the ultimate consequence – death. That’s not what God wanted. God is all about life, not death. We talk about human rights. What is more basic a human right than the right to live as God created us? God didn’t give us his commandments to control us. He gave them to us to set us free, because if we keep his commandments we will be living as we were intended to live. It’s when we fight against our true nature that we have problems.

This teaching goes to the very heart of our fidelity to our basic beliefs.

It’s all about what we think scripture is. Is it just a set of guidelines that we can form and shape to our own thinking, depending on the time and place? Or is it the inspired word of God that we are called to follow and obey, not pick apart as it suits our purposes?

It’s about what the Church is. Is it just a community of people who think the same way and believe the same things, or is it the living Body of Christ to the world? Is it just a big Kiwanis club that does good stuff, or is it the force for moral clarity and good in the world? Are we really Christ here on earth today? Does it really matter if you’re Catholic or not, or is any old religion ok, just as long as we’re good people?

And what about Jesus? It’s ultimately all about who we believe him to be. Is he really the Son of God? Or was he just a man of his times? Was he transcendent over time or was he just speaking to the people in front of him that day? Was he really speaking to us, too? He said that we are his friends we are to keep his commandments. All of them. Not just the ones we agree with or like. Did that just apply to his disciples?

Wait a minute, aren’t we also his disciples?