Homily for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time, October 3, 2021. Genesis 2:18-24, The Gospel of Mark 10:2-12. Theme: Servants of Love, Servants of Life
Our first reading from the Book of Genesis presents us with a very intriguing story about the first man and the first woman. Many people scoff at it because it seems like such a fairytale. But they make this mistake because they treat this story as if it’s a recounting of history as we 21st-century people would tell it. When reading the Scriptures we have to remember that God’s Word comes to us in various forms and styles of literature.
Today’s Genesis passage was written in the poetic story-telling language of ancient Middle-Eastern culture. Through the use of symbolism it teaches us who man and woman are meant to be for each other through the bond of marriage. It’s a truth which Jesus himself ratifies in today’s gospel. So let’s revisit the story and see what God is revealing to us through its symbolism.
As the story opens we come upon God as a kind of hybrid sculptor-surgeon-inventor, who labors to find just the right complement to the male human being he has formed. If we place ourselves in the story and let our imagination guide us, I think we can almost see the damp primordial mist creeping through the garden and feel a gentle breeze swaying through the lush greenery of Eden. And there, in the midst of it, we see God bending gently over Adam who is in a deep peaceful slumber. The Lord removes a rib from his side and lays it carefully upon the soft ground.
As we continue looking on in utter amazement, we see that the excised rib is transforming into the detailed figure of a female, the first woman. Adam awakens and we see him turn his head to the side, We hear him exclaim that his existence is enriched and his life is now complete! The two of them, Adam the Man and Eve the Mother of the living, have received each other and become one through the intentional action of a match-maker God! This Genesis story is telling us that it takes three to get married and enjoy life together: man, woman, and God.”
We are told that the first that woman came from the side of man. And so, we need to ask what this symbolism might mean. Why was she created from his side? Why not his head? Why not his foot? Well, because in the ancient culture of Genesis, to be made from the man’s head would mean that she was his superior. And to have been formed from his feet would designate woman as man’s inferior. So you see, to proclaim that woman was created by God from Adam’s side is to say that male and female are companions, equal in their partnership as husband and wife, equal in their dignity as creatures of God. This was a completely revolutionary idea in ancient times!
The fact that our Genesis storyteller has God creating Eve from a rib rather than any other body part is also very significant. Again, recalling that we are dealing with Hebrew symbolism we have to ask: why a rib? What do ribs do for the human body that might give us a clue? As we all know, ribs form a cage, a protection, for the body’s two most vital systems: the heart and lungs. The heart is of course a universal symbol of love; the lungs, symbols of life. Without lungs we have no breath, no existence. Without a heart, we have no love, and a life without love is barely worth living.
And it’s in these two realities of love and life that we find the very reason and purpose for marriage.
Spouses are to be servants of love, servants of life to one another. They are to put the welfare of their beloved before their own, finding a kind of happiness in focusing on the needs and desires of the other. They are to give deeper meaning to each other’s lives, to each other’s existence. And they are also to be servants of life by receiving and nurturing any children the Lord might give them as the flesh and bone signs of their bonded-love.
So you see, there are some fundamental and important truths that God is teaching us through this most ancient of Old Testament stories. It’s all about the equal dignity of men and women and their mission as a couple to be living signs of love and life in a world that desperately needs to hear it and to see it in action.
For this very reason, Jesus elevated the natural union of civil marriage into the supernatural union of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony for his disciples.
Through this sacrament He offers married couples all the grace, strength and power they need to be servants of love, servants of life. Through matrimony he empowers them to love as he loves and to live as he lived. This grace, strength and power is theirs for the totality of their lives together as husband and wife. All they have to do to receive it is to be as docile and open to God’s Presence and God’s action in their lives as were Adam and Eve on that mysterious first day in the Garden of Eden.
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