Word to the Wise
Thursday, February 11, 2021 - Thursday in the 5th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 2:18-25 and Mark 7:24-30]The Lord God said: "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.......So the Lord God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The Lord God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man. When he brought her to the man, the man said: "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." [Genesis]
Jesus quotes this passage from Genesis in replying to the Pharisees' question about divorce, which was permitted under the law of Moses.[Matt 19:4-6}. In doing this, he made it clear that Moses permitted divorce because of "the hardness of your hearts," Jesus' position on divorce has been one of the most difficult for humankind to accept. Nearly 50% of marriages in the USA, at least, end in legal divorce. There is a lot of "hardness of heart" in our culture!
In this passage, God states "It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a suitable companion for him." God makes all the other animals and man rejects them (even dogs?) as a suitable "companion." However, the man exercises his right of dominion by giving each animal its name. God then creates woman out of the substance of man, and man gives her the name "woman." However, the dominance of giving a name to the "suitable companion" did not extend to the kind of dominance over other creatures. This, too, has been a hard lesson for many cultures to learn.
I have celebrated many a wedding. Some of these marriages have ended in divorce for various reasons, much to my dismay and sadness. The theological dimension of marriage has been lost in the various cultural expectations. The two do not become one until death but rather two until divorce. All the marriage preparation programs put into place by our own Catholic tradition in this country do not seem to penetrate into the long term relationship, which requires a constant effort and conversion as the two create a union that tells the truth about them.
It looks like Moses' teaching has become more popular than Jesus' teaching, but Jesus has the advantage, even if we don't recognize it. AMEN