27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Gn 2:18-24
Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6
Heb 2:9-11
Mk 10:2-16 or 10:2-12

Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, with the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Many years ago I had the privilege of working with a number of married couples, presenting weekends for engaged couples. Our programs always included lots of personal storytelling, and I got to hear the wonderful stories of how these dedicated married couples found God through their partner in the day-to-day project of making marriage work.

This Sunday, we center on the theme of marriage. Jesus connects a call for fidelity in marriage to our first reading from the Book of Genesis, which describes the creation of man and woman. That connection seems to say that faithfulness in marriage, working hard to make it work-is rooted in our very humanness, in how we are created by God.

Now, there are lots of self-help books and plenty of jokes stressing the differences between men and women. But out of those differences, expressed in many cultures around the world, comes the stuff of which good marriages are made. The stories I heard on those engaged couples' weekends bore witness to that creative work.

In the Gospel of Mark Jesus is busy proclaiming the Kingdom. He wants marriage, the relationship of man and woman, to be part of that proclamation. It is in that most human of institutions, in the nitty-gritty of daily life, that God is at work. Let's celebrate that this weekend.

Scripture:

•This is why man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24)

•The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life. (Psalm 128:5)

•He who consecrates and those who are consecrated have one origin. (Hebrews 2:11)

•For this reason a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. (Mark (10:7)

Reflection:

•How would you improve relations with the other?

•How could the other improve your relationship?

•What could you do today to improve your life?

•How is your God like or different from the other that you love and who loves you?

Touch me with that hand, seek me with those eyes, run toward me with those limbs. I am not far from you; I am the God who is near, the word in your mouth and in your heart. And what is nearer to any man than his heart? It is there, entirely within, that I am found by all who seek me. For that which is outside concerns sight alone. My works are real but they are only fragile, transient things; whereas I, their creator, dwell in the depths of the pure in heart. (Anonymous)