Sunday, Oct. 6, is the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Mass readings: Genesis 2:18-24, Psalm 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16 or 10:2-12

This Sunday’s Gospel offers some fundamental teachings on marriage.

The Gospel opens with the Pharisees approaching Jesus and asking, somewhat rhetorically, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” 

Jesus, aware of their hypocrisy (they do not really want an answer from him on which to base their lives), asks them in return, “What did Moses command you?” They gleefully respond, in essence, that Moses permitted a husband to divorce his wife as long as he “filled out the paperwork,” if you will.

Jesus, having encountered their hardened hearts, announces a restoration, a return to God’s original plan for marriage. The Lord quotes the Book of Genesis, saying, “But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. And for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

In other words, anything that may have happened in the aftermath of original sin, any compromises or arrangements that have emerged during the reign of sin, are now to be done away with in the reign of grace that will come as the result of Jesus’ saving death and resurrection.

As is true today, Jesus’ reassertion of traditional, biblical marriage was met with controversy. The disciples are somewhat troubled by what Jesus says and ask him about it again later. Jesus does not back down. He even intensifies his language, saying, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” 

There will be no apology from Jesus: Divorce and remarriage is adultery. Marriage is a work of God; it has a reality and an existence that flows from God’s work. All of humanity’s attempts to redefine, obfuscate or alter marriage as God has set it forth are not recognized by God.

Next comes an interesting twist, which includes a reminder of one of the most essential purposes of marriage: “And people were bringing their little children to Jesus that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. … Jesus saw this, became indignant and said to them, ‘Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’” 

Because children are marriage’s most fundamental fruit, it makes sense that marriage is based on what is best for them: a stable, lasting environment in which their parents have committed to each other in mutual support and partnership in raising them. There are things that a father can teach a child that a mother cannot; there are things that a mother can teach a child that a father cannot. 

Note how the Lord embraces the child in this Gospel: He is willing to embrace us as well, in our failures and our difficulties. If we have failed, we should be like a young child — and run to the Father.