Homily for SPP SC SJ on the 27th Sunday OT B 10/6/2024
Gen 2:18-24 / Ps 128 / Heb 2:9-11 / Mk 10:2-16
I had a wedding yesterday and they used these exact same first reading and Gospel. They are good readings, unless a person has been divorced and/or remarried, then they could be really challenging.
The Church’s teaching on divorce and remarriage is difficult for some, this whole notion of calling the first wedding null or invalid often makes people think the children are illegitimate, but that really isn’t true, it just means that there was something missing when that marriage happened that didn’t make it valid. Even without that hangup, you can tell it was even a difficult teaching even back then because the Apostles asked for a clarification privately.
There are lots of difficult teachings within the Bible, but that doesn’t mean we give up on it or the Church for that matter. Actually a Marquette student approached me last week about our teaching on evolution in light of our first reading from Genesis and the creation of Adam and Eve, feeling like there is a conflict between faith and reason, between faith and science.
The Catholic Church hasn’t taken an official position on Evolution and Adam and Eve, it doesn’t need to and at some level it can’t because, well, the fact of the matter is we just don’t know how it all happened, there is no eyewitness account. Personally, I see no conflict between Evolution and Adam and Eve, they can co-exist even if it seems on the surface to be in conflict.
The Bible is not meant to be a science book, it is meant to be a spiritual book to help us get to Heaven. And this is the beauty of what Jesus does at the end of this Gospel, He takes a child and places it in their midst and says “Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”
Children trust their parents. They are very trusting. They are more accepting of these challenging things, they don’t overthink it. We tend to overthink as we get older. Now, don’t hear what I am not saying, I think everyone should learn as much as they possibly can, but, at the end of the day, still trusting that God loves us and we can still go to Heaven and be with Him for eternity.