Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time Readings

Two topics that seem to keep coming up for discussion are divorce and marriage. Why does the Church not recognize divorce? Why does the Church not recognize same sex marriages?

Before any other sacraments existed, God in His infinite wisdom created the institution and sacrament of marriage. So, matrimony is the first sacrament given to us. God loved Adam into existence and Adam was full of the love of God. Because of this relationship, Adam was not lonely. But Adam was alone because he was flesh and bone and needed someone like himself to share the love that God had given him. God saw Adam’s situation and He, God, acted by loving into existence someone Adam could share his life with. Adam called her women because she was like him. Adam and Eve were joined in matrimony, though no elaborate ceremony was performed. Adam and Eve would become companions and soul mates on the journey of life.

Because God had joined Adam and Eve together, only God had the power to dissolve their joining together in marriage.

When a Baptized couple decide to marry, they go before the Church and ask for the sacrament of matrimony. The Church becomes a witness to the marriage and a facilitator of the sacrament. The couple administer the sacrament to one another through the exchange of their marriage promises which is professed before the Church and before God. The couple are joined together by the grace of the sacrament and the bond they commit to with one another is indissolvable.

In recent years, the Church has recognized that some couples did not fully enter into marriage with the proper understanding of the sacrament or the commitment necessary to the other that would make the marriage promises binding. When this happens, a sacramental marriage never existed and if an annulment is issued, it because of the lack of commitment on the part of the couple. The marriage is not dissolved. The marriage never existed so it cannot be dissolved.

If we read further in the Book of Genesis, we learn that God created them, man and woman He created them. This statement, when taken together with the statements in today’s reading are the basis for our belief and understanding of marriage as between one man and one woman. The Scripture passage reads, ” that is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh”. It shows God’s intention that only a man and woman should be joined in the holy sacrament of matrimony.

So, we may ask if a gay or lesbian couple do not deserve the same privileges as a heterosexual couple? The answer is that there are no exceptions to the joining of a man and woman, and this is the only formula that is relevant. I empathize with gay and lesbian persons because life it is a difficult path to walk alone. However, I read in Genesis, that God’s plan for creation did not provide alternative situations and that the alternative situations are the result of original sin and do not adhere to divine or natural law.

Though we as Church cannot condone the acts or promises that same sex couples make to one another, we still follow the law of love in which we condemn the sin but not the sinner. We are still called to love our brothers and sisters who are gay or lesbian.

The US House of Representatives does not see things our way. In the bill, HR5, they have made it illegal for a same sex or transgender couple to be refused marriage by any church. If enacted by the Senate, HR5 will allow the couples who are refused marriage to file suit for damages against the church or institution that has denied them marriage. It is a dangerous blow to religious freedom if enacted and enforced and we must pray that HR5 does not become law.

For all married couples, may God continue to bless your union and through you may He show the world His vision of love and community.

May God continue to bless you,

Deacon Phil