Sunday, October 6, 2024 – 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

Fr. Matthew Siegman

This Sunday, the first reading and the Gospel point us, very strongly, toward reflection on the truths of marriage. These are beautiful readings, and I suspect that most homilies this weekend will bring these truths, which the church has taught since the time of Christ forward: the when a man and woman are joined in holy matrimony, they become one flesh, that man and woman are equal in dignity but differ in many beautiful ways, that husbands and wives are to seek God together, that the bond of marriage cannot be broken by any earthly means, that the hardness of our small and weak human hearts leads spouses to separation, that the innocence and openness of children is how we all should approach each other, but most especially husbands and wives. Marriage is a vocation, meaning that it is a life-long commitment to holiness for the husband and wife entering the sacred covenant of matrimony. It is also a sacrament, which means that families–formed by marriage–are meant to build up the church and bring the presence of God more fully in the world. At its core, marriage is meant to perfect us, to make us holy.

This aspect of marriage, that as a sacrament of vocation it is meant to make spouses holy and the world holy through the spouses, leads us to the Letter to the Hebrews. The passage we read today is a deeply profound meditation on why Jesus came into this world and did what he did. The Son of the Father was made lower than the angels so that he could accomplish the work of salvation: so “that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.”

The motivation for this action of God becomes clear in the next verse. He is “bringing many children to glory.” He is the one who leads us to salvation, and so he chose to suffer for us. Not because it was necessary, God can do anything which he desires, but because it was fitting. It is supremely fitting, in fact. Because Christ came to save us from sin and from death. By tasting the suffering and the death that is, by tasting the consequence of sin, he took the burden of sin and its consequences of suffering and death onto himself, the consequences of humanity’s failure to follow God, and he showed them to be nothing. Jesus, our leader, showed us this by tasting death and showing us that it is powerless in his Resurrection. Sin cannot rule over us, and death does not end our life.

The letter even states that he was made perfect through suffering. But how is Jesus, who is God, not already perfect? We certainly do not believe that Christ had any moral failures in his life: he was morally blameless, a just and upright man, the scriptures of his time called such men “perfect.” When he took on our humanity, though, he took on a fallen human nature. Human nature, wounded by original sin, experiences weakness, pain, and death. Through the trials and testing of his suffering, he brought human nature to such perfection that he could then truly be called the unblemished Lamb, the one who could offer himself on behalf of all humanity. By offering himself and his perfected human nature on the Cross, he consecrated all who “have one origin.” While this could refer to Adam and Eve, but it is, perhaps, more likely a reference to those who, through baptism, have become sons and daughters of the Father. All of us who have been baptized, then, share in Christ’s victory, because he has set us apart for glory and made us worthy to enter the presence of the Father. Because he has shared in our sufferings and set us apart for his Father, then, Jesus proudly proclaims us his brothers and sisters.

This is incredible news! God willed to save us from the consequences of sin and death, so he became one of us not only so that he could show us the road to himself, but so that he could also sanctify and glorify by sharing the perfection he won for us through his action on the Cross. When

we share in his life by cooperating with the grace of God working within us, “God remains in us and his love is brought to perfection in us,” as St. John says in the Alleluia verse.

And this brings us back to the other readings for this Sunday. Marriage is a sacred covenant through which a husband and a wife are called to the perfection of love. In loving each other, they grow in their ability to love God. In striving to love God, they grow in their ability to love one another. May we all strive to walk in the ways of the Lord, so that he may bless us all the days of our lives, both on this earth and in everlasting life to come.