Homily: 27th Sunday in Ordinary time, cycle B

One of my favorite movie stars is Clint Eastwood.  I really enjoy most of his movies and he has many memorible quotes.  One of his movie lines that I think of from time-to-time is, "A man's got to know his limitations."



When it comes to our readings today  about marriage I can say that I've reached my limitations.

I can not tell you how to be happily married.  I can't tell you what to do to make marriage work.  I can't even tell you how to go about trying to find someone who would be a good person to marry.  I just don't know this type of information.  I have no experience of being married, I'm not married, and I won't ever be married.  So here it is.  This is one of my limitations.

But... I can tell you the "why" about marriage.  I can tell you why it is so important.  Why marriage is the central theme in our readings today.  And why Jesus was so uncompromising on His teachings against divorce.

Our first reading comes from the second chapter of Genesis.  If we want to understand why marriage is so important it is good to start "In the beginning" with the chapter just before.  In Genesis chapter one we read that all humans are created in the image and likeness of God. 

That means, that in some real way, if you look into the mirror you will see the reflection of God.  You are in God's very own image and likeness.  

Even as Adam was in the image and likeness of God he was still incomplete and was lacking something.  So God made for him a suitable partner.  It wasn't any animal but finally a woman (Eve).  She was like him, she complimented him, and she completed him. It was with her that he united and joined her as "one flesh."

In that moment, in that embrace, in that union of two into one flesh we can see the human person being most fully in the image and likeness of God... let me explain.

God is a Trinity of three persons and yet just one God.  This is hard to understand but allow me to try to explain it.

God the Father (the first person of the Trinity) speaks one Word.

Before time and eternity became the Father spoke one Word... that Word is the second person of the Trinity.  It was that second person who took on our human nature and we call him Jesus.

I'm so lo-tech that I literally drew this on a piece of paper and then
took a picture of it on my phone to post it here

The Father spoke one Word and the Word then loves the Father.  The love that they share is the Holy Spirit.  The love and the union between the Word and the Father is the Holy Spirit... the third person of the Trinity.  The Holy Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Word.

Marriage is the domestic trinity!

In the bond and union of marriage humans most completely and totally show forth the inner life of the Holy Trinity.  In the bond of marriage human beings are most perfectly in the image and likeness of the Trinity.

I hope you can see how marriage is in the image and likeness of the Holy Trinity.
Sorry again for the lo-tech graphics.

Just as in the Holy Trinity the bond of love between the Father and the Word is the Holy Spirit so too in the domestic trinity the bond of love between a husband and a wife is open to the new life of a child.

The bond of marriage is the most perfect image and likeness of God that there is.  From the altar we, weekly, receive the physical presence of the Lord.  In the Eucharist we are physically united to God.  So too, in marriage, does a man and a woman physically imitate God.

This is why we believe what we do about Marriage.  This is why the Church teaches what it does in regards to the many moral issues surrounding marriage.

So often when it comes to morality, especially these types of issues, people think of the teaching of the Church as nothing more than a long list of: Don't do this... don't do that... don't... no, No, NO!



That is most certainly not what we believe at all!

When the Holy Trinity loves creation always springs forth.

So to in the domestic trinity of marriage the physical gift of one's self to another should always be open to new life.  This is why we are opposed to artificial contraception.

In His plan God has shared with the married couple the task of continuing the work of creation.  There is nothing that God loves more that new life and so it takes the complementarity of one woman and one man to create life.  There is no other arrangement were life can come about.  This is why we are opposed to redefining marriage as something other than one man and one woman.

Certainly the work of co-creating new life is a precious gift that God shares freely and there is nothing that God loves more than the physical union that brings about new life.  This is why it is so wonderful, so powerful, so exciting, and so pleasurable. The physical union of two people is so incredible because God wanted it to be that way!  He chose to make that physical union so wonderful.  The experience of the ecstasy of this union is a direct sharing in the joy that God has in creating new life. 

We must never end this new human life.  That is why we are apposed to abortion.

The gift of one's whole self in marriage must always be a complete gift.  But we believe that the openness to new life should come after the vows of two people to share their lives for life.  That is why we believe that the giving of someone's body to another should always come after their marriage vows... and never before.
That is why we teach that people should wait for marriage to give their bodies to each other.

In the Gospel we hear Jesus speak very strongly against divorce.  He clearly teachings that it is God's will that a man and a woman be joined in marriage and that that union cannot be "divorced."

This makes perfect sense if we believe that marriage is the domestic trinity.  The union and relationships within the Holy Trinity are not temporary nor are they ever going to be ended.  So for us, as Christians, we believe that marriage imitates this permanence and thus marriage lasts "till death do us part!"

Please understand that these teachings and beliefs are not easy.  They are especially difficult in today's world where point-by-point popular culture seems to oppose our faith.  Many people don't even like it when this is preached from the pulpit.  

The domestic trinity

I understand the difficulty but Jesus is uncompromising.  Our faith is challenging.  The plan of God calls us to live up to a lofty ideal. Our being in the image and likeness of God is a tremendous challenge.  For us marriage is not just "another life option" nor it is a quaint arrangement.  Marriage is nothing short of a physical and life-long imitation of the Holy Trinity.  For the Christian marriage is the "Domestic Trinity." This is why we believe what we do about it.  This is why we consider it such a treasure.  This is why Jesus was so uncompromising on His teachings about the bond of marriage.