{"id":839,"date":"2012-10-08T08:18:13","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T12:18:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=839"},"modified":"2012-10-08T08:18:13","modified_gmt":"2012-10-08T12:18:13","slug":"homily-for-october-8-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/homily-for-october-8-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily for October 8, 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B<\/a>
\nGenesis 2:18-25
\nHebrews 2:9-11
\nMark 10:2-16
\nOctober 7, 2012<\/p>\n

It is not good for man to be alone.<\/em><\/p>\n

These are the words that our God after he created the first man.\u00a0 We are not created to be alone.\u00a0 We are created to be loved, loved by God and loved by others.<\/p>\n

Our love for others happens in many different ways from loving a stranger by caring about their needs to loving our friends and family.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But ideally, human love reaches its deepest and most profound love in the love of a man and woman for each other as husband and wife.<\/p>\n

Knowing man so well, God says that he will make a suitable partner for the man.\u00a0 Then God creates the animals but none of them fit the bill.\u00a0 Animals can make great companions but not in this way<\/p>\n

Then, as the story continues, God took a rib from Adam and made Eve from the rib.\u00a0 People have interpreted this to mean that there is one perfect match for each person that the man just needs to find the woman with his rib.<\/p>\n

In reality what God is trying to tell us is that this \u2018suitable partner\u2019 needs to be of the same essence and compliment one another.\u00a0 By complimenting, we mean how two work together.\u00a0 One way of looking at it is \u2018opposites attract.\u2019\u00a0 Then, in their different gifts make up for what is lacking.\u00a0 But sometimes we find a best partner is the person with similar interests.<\/p>\n

There is no magic answer to finding the \u2018suitable partner\u2019.\u00a0 It takes effort.\u00a0 And even when you find your \u2018suitable partner\u2019 it takes effort to make it work but when you find that person and put forth the effort to make it work, then the two become one flesh.<\/p>\n

Of course, this is the ideal.\u00a0 Then there is divorce.\u00a0 Today there is a lot of it with about 50% of marriages ending in divorce.\u00a0 In my own family there is more divorce than not.<\/p>\n

The work to stop divorce begins before the marriage to ask oneself is this a person I want to spend the rest of my life with?\u00a0 Am I willing, and will they be willing, to put effort in to make the marriage work.\u00a0\u00a0Then, it takes a lot of effort after the wedding too.<\/p>\n

Some people divorce because one or both parties aren\u2019t willing to put the effort into the marriage.\u00a0 Other times, there really are fundamental problems with the marriage.<\/p>\n

Divorce is probably one of the great misunderstandings in today\u2019s church.\u00a0 For instance, some people think that if you are divorced, you can\u2019t come up for Communion.\u00a0 Divorce isn\u2019t the problem (although depending on the reason for divorce, you might need to go to Confession).\u00a0 Remarrying without getting an annulment is the point about Communion.<\/p>\n

People think an annulment is just Catholic divorce.\u00a0 That\u2019s not true.\u00a0 Divorce and an annulment operate from completely different premises.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

All that a divorce does is end a legal relationship.\u00a0 It used to be you had to show some fault to get a divorce.\u00a0 But today, if both parties agree to divorce, it\u2019s over.\u00a0 In some ways, it is no different that two owners of a business deciding to stop being partners.<\/p>\n

But relationships aren\u2019t that simple.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t just a contract to do things for each other.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jesus tells us that what God has joined together, no human being must separate.\u00a0 Hearing Jesus words, the Church has no authority to end a marriage (separate).\u00a0 An annulment does not end a marriage.<\/p>\n

The wording is very difficult here.\u00a0 What the church looks for in the annulment process is was the marriage a full marriage.\u00a0 Even when an annulment is granted, the Church does not say the marriage never existed.\u00a0 There was a marriage but there was something not \u201cwhole\u201d about it.\u00a0 It lacked the fullness of what a sacramental marriage is meant to be, two becoming one flesh.<\/p>\n

The Church recognizes that there are reasons to divorce.\u00a0 For instance, if you are facing real abuse, get out.\u00a0 Patterns of adultery can be important here.<\/p>\n

In cases like these, one divorces to protect themselves or their children.\u00a0 But divorce is a legal process.\u00a0 An annulment looks at what kept a marriage from being what it was meant to be.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

An annulment is not meant to be more hoops to jump through.\u00a0 An annulment is an opportunity to talk about what was lacking.\u00a0 If one looks beyond the \u2018annulment process\u2019 in a rules sense, it can be an opportunity for healing and understanding.\u00a0 A divorce might be about blaming the other person.\u00a0 An annulment looks at the relationship, what it was vs. what it was meant to be.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The grounds for an annulment might be about the other person, it might not be.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t about blame.\u00a0 It\u2019s about finding God\u2019s Will for the couple and moving forward.<\/p>\n

May we always first pray that all marriages be full and valid marriages as God calls and when, in our humanness, that is lacking, may healing be found in God\u2019s graces.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B Genesis 2:18-25 Hebrews 2:9-11 Mark 10:2-16 October 7, 2012 It is not good for man to be alone. These are the words that our God after he created the first man.\u00a0 We are not created to be alone.\u00a0 We are created to be loved, loved by God and …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Homily for October 8, 2012’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-dx","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}