Scripture Study for
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Genesis 2:18–24 / Psalm 128:5 / Hebrews 2:9–11 / Mark 10:2–16 or 10:2–12
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Understanding the Word
By Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.
In the second creation account no animal was found fit to serve as a suitable partner for the human being. The word for partner (’ezer) denotes a source of blessing after some kind of deliverance. It is not good that the human creature be alone, but the other animals are not suitable partners, so God creates the woman. The detail that she was built from one of the man’s ribs stems from an ancient source in which the word for “woman of life,” comes from the same root word as “woman of the rib.” Since she is united to him in “bone and flesh,” a typical way of expressing comprehensiveness, the man now has a suitable partner. Jesus’ solidarity with the rest of the human family is outlined in the second reading. While in his human nature, Jesus shared the status that human beings enjoyed. However, assuming human nature was for him a humbling experience. In accepting the human condition, he emptied himself of his divine privileges, and if this were not humbling enough, he did so in order to empty himself radically in death for the sake of us all, thus reconciling the human race with God. Jesus’ self-emptying death shows that he is not ashamed of the human nature that he shares with all humanity.
The Pharisees test Jesus with a question about divorce. They were probably probing to see if Jesus would disagree with Moses, who allowed it. They challenge Jesus: Is divorce ever acceptable? If so, on what grounds? Jesus does not undermine the authority of Moses, but he points out its concession to human weakness. He insists that in God’s original design the couple become one flesh and should not be separated. Jesus’ teaching does not make the demands of marriage easier, but it does place the marriage partners on an equal footing. Speaking of the reign of God, he states that one can only enter it with the unpretentiousness of children.