Word to the Wise
Thursday, February 12, 2009 - Thursday in the Fifth Week in Ordinary Time
[Genesis 2:18-25 and Mark 7:24-30]This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called 'woman,' for out of 'her man' this one has been taken. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh.
The profound lessons from Genesis continue in what is referred to as the "second creation story." The first lines "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him..." should be read along with the statement from "Adam" about "this one being bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." This is not about the "battle of the sexes" in which a distorted reading of scripture results in female being subordinated to male simply because she was taken from male. It should be noted that true maleness came into being only when a female was created! This complementarity receives its highest expression in marriage and it is heartbreaking to see how this gift is so abused and broken by modern day individualist and consumerist notions! There is no longer "one flesh" but two who are together in a convenient arrangement! Nevertheless, the gift is also possible in male/female friendship where the unity of heart and mind may not find expression in unity of body but nevertheless be a profound sharing in God's gift of complementarity. Our "oversexed" culture makes this kind of unity difficult to realize. Woman's faith is often shown to be the stronger kind as the gospel scripture for today shows. The Syro-Phoenician woman of Greek cultural environment would have been considered unclean by many of Jesus' companions! Her persistent faith brought Jesus' healing to her daughter. Jesus' constant willingness to respond to the need of women of faith is a lesson too easily ignored by men. Once more, God's gift of complementarity suffers from a distorted understanding of the role of gender in human life. We should remember the earlier wisdom from Genesis that says, "the TWO become one flesh." It does not say the "one and a half became one flesh!" AMEN
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