Sunday Gospel Reflection
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 10:2-16 | October 3, 2021
The Sacredness of Marriage, Children, and Family
Carlo S. Dureza
The gospel today elaborates on family. It moves us as it reflects significant experiences close to our hearts. It is mainly about marriage, and it also highlights children.
Firstly, a man and a woman are united by God’s grace in marriage and become one. Their union is bound by God in that what He has joined together, no one could separate.
Then comes the issue of divorce.
I recall the first time I heard of divorce. I was an 8- or 9-year-old lad when an aunt had returned from abroad with a new husband. She was unsuccessful in her first marriage and remarried after obtaining a divorce. The second was when, as a fresh high school graduate, I overheard a conversation between two ladies in a makeshift canteen, with one saying that she plans to marry a foreigner and then divorce him afterwards but get the privileges she would be entitled to as the “wife”.
I was in college when I started to be aware of this popular Hollywood actress who would marry, then divorce her husband, then take another one, then do the same again and again until she ended up having 8 husbands all of whom she divorced.
Clearly, divorce advocates the dissolution of marriage. It blatantly defies God’s commandment to have a man and a woman united permanently through the sacrament of marriage. In the eyes of God, divorce is a disrespectful disregard of His laws.
It was out of man’s stubbornness that laws on divorce were promulgated, e.g., issuance of certificates and remarriage. But to God, the union between husband and wife remain intact, the sacrament of marriage solid and undefiled. Whoever shall violate this by coveting another commits adultery and sins. The wages of sin shall surely be paid. This may serve as a warning to stiff-necked people.
Secondly, children are seen bringing joy to Jesus. He says the Kingdom of God belongs to them.
Children are a pleasant sight to behold for we have seen the citizens of God’s Kingdom. Characteristically, they may be precautious, explorative, and bothersome. But in their innocence, obedience, dependency, and truthfulness, they are ones to whom God’s graces are bestowed. The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to these little ones with simple faith.
Aside from getting playful with the “little bundles” of joy that command attention in our families, my adventures with children were profuse when I visited orphanages in and out of town some years back. Children indeed seize you with their unblemished and faultless countenance. Their purity of hearts in seeking and giving genuine love is astonishing.
A strong marriage begets well-loved children and makes a family—the foundation of God’s Church on earth and the Mystical Body of Christ. We must all be responsible and accountable to preserve this One Body because it is sacred and founded on the Creator.
May we treasure marriage, children, and the family. Let us keep them holy.
Happy Sunday to all married couples, children, and families! God bless!!
