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Image: Christ with children by Carl Heinrich Bloch 1800s
Pope Francis’ Angelus Reflection for 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Saint Peter’s Square – Sunday, 6 October 2024
“Fight as much as you like . . . but make peace before the day is out!
Sunday Gospel (Mark 10:2-16)
Some Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, ‘Is it against the law for a man to divorce his wife?’
They were testing him. He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ ‘Moses allowed us’ they said ‘to draw up a writ of dismissal and so to divorce.’
Then Jesus said to them, ‘It was because you were so unteachable that he wrote this commandment for you.
But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. This is why a man must leave father and mother, and the two become one body. They are no longer two, therefore, but one body. So then, what God has united, man must not divide.’
Back in the house the disciples questioned him again about this, and he said to them, ‘The man who divorces his wife and marries another is guilty of adultery against her.
And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another she too is guilty of adultery.’
People were bringing little children to him, for him to touch them.
The disciples turned them away, but when Jesus saw that happening he was indignant and said to them,
‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
I tell you the truth, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’
Then he put his arms around them, laid his hands on them and gave them his blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today, in the Gospel of the Liturgy (above), Jesus speaks to us about conjugal love.
As they had done on other occasions, some Pharisees asked him a provocative question on a controversial subject: the divorce of a man from his wife.
They wanted to drag him into an argument, but he refused.
Instead, he welcomes the opportunity to draw their attention to a more important discussion: the value of love between a man and a woman.
In Jesus’ time, the position of the woman in marriage was very disadvantaged compared to that of the man: the husband could send his wife away, divorce her, even for trivial reasons, and this would be justified by legalistic interpretations of the Scriptures.
This is why the Lord brings his interlocutors back to the demands of love.
He reminds them that woman and man were intended by the Creator to be equal in dignity and complementary in diversity.
In this way, they would be each other’s helpers and companions but would also stimulate and challenge each other to grow (cf. Gn 2:20-23 – 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; 22 and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman because she was taken out of Man.”[).
And for this to happen, he emphasizes that their mutual gift must be full, committed, without “half measures” – this is love – that it must be the beginning of a new life (Mk 10:7 – 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,;& Gen 2:24 – Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh), destined to last not “as long as everything goes well” but forever, accepting each other and living united as “one flesh” (cf. Mk 10:8 – And the two shall become one.’[a] So they are no longer two but one.[b]; Gen 2:24 – Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh).
Of course, this is not easy, this requires fidelity, even in difficulties, it requires respect, honesty, simplicity (cf. Mk 10:15 – Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” ).
It requires openness to confrontation, sometimes even to discussion, when it is necessary, but also to be always a readiness to forgive and to reconcile with the other.
And I say to you: man and woman, fight as much as you like, provided you always make peace before the day is out! Do you know why? Because the Cold War that comes the next day is dangerous.
“And tell me, Father, how should we make peace?”.
– A gentle caress, like this, is enough,” but never end the day without making peace.
Let us not forget, also, that for married couples it is essential to be open to the gift of life, to the gift of children, who are the most beautiful fruit of love, the greatest blessing from God, a source of joy and hope for every home and for the whole of society.
Have children! Yesterday I received a great consolation. It was the day of the gendarmerie, and a gendarme came with his eight children! It was wonderful to see him. Please be open to life, to whatever God may send you.
Dear brothers and sisters, love is demanding, yes, but it is beautiful, and the more we allow ourselves to be involved by it, the more we discover true happiness in it.
And now, let each one of us ask ourselves: How is my love? Is it faithful?
Is it generous? Is it creative?
How are our families? Are they open to life, to the gift of children?
May the Virgin Mary help Christian married couples. Let us turn to her in spiritual union with the faithful gathered in the Shrine of Pompeii for the traditional invocation of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary.
