Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – Cycle B
Reflecting on Genesis 2:18-24
It’s chilly in my office this morning. What a blessing. The heat of the summer is finally fading. Time to check the closet for a sweater or jacket. Ah, here’s Ben’s coat, my favorite coat, the one he wore on our first date 27 years ago. I wrap myself in its cozy corduroy warmth and re-member (experience again, “member again”) that young, sweet, smart guy who asked me out on a date for one night, and then asked to love me for a lifetime. In my astonishment I recall the psalmist who, reflecting on his immense good fortune, asked, “Who am I, oh God, that you should be mindful of me?”
The ancients whom the Holy Spirit inspired to tell the story of the creation of women and men had this beautiful insight: we are formed of the same flesh, carved of the same bone. And in a great marriage the spouses may even say, You get me. My heart calls to your heart. It is in your arms I want to die.
And of course the raising of children causes spouses to cling to each other, to delight and agonize together, for the rest of their lives, over the children entrusted to them. That’s a bond like no other, yes? The suffering that comes from this great love is immense. There is no holier undertaking.
My heart breaks in half for those who have lost their loves, or weren’t faithful to love, or never found love. Life isn’t fair. Thank God the BRIDEGROOM has espoused himself to us forever, to heal those wounds and make all things new. See how our God has come to meet us.
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I have come to light a fire on the earth; how I wish it were already burning (Lk.12:49).
I use think that God was unfair, why do the humm, the most dreadful women get husbands and I can’t even get a look. I was so angery and hurt I felt like God had forgot me. But as I now look back at each person I felt could be”Mr. Right” And I see what poor choices I made I’m amazed how I was spared the pain of abuse. I have had a different call then being a wife and mother, I have been called to take care of the sick and dying. I didnt have much of a childhood, I grew up fast, but not always wise. I have learned that the labor of love comes in all sort of relationships. people ask if I regret not marrying or having babies. No not really, I have had a full life with memories that I hold dearly to my heart. I’m proud that I was there to hold the hand leaving this life and I am proud that I raised my brother and sister otherwie we would have been split up amongst the different relatives. Gods call for me has been intimate and rewarding all I ever had to do is stop feeling sorry for myself and realize I am Blessed by God in my call to do the thing I have done. I am not anti marriage or anything I just never fit that roll and I never had time. It would have been so unfair to a husband, he may have been put last all the time. I just wish I had learned these things younger and embraced the life I led at the each stage of the life I lived.
By necessity, I focus on the first part of God’s declaration in this reading: “It is not good for the man to be alone.” Everything else that is narrated in the second creation account flows from that simple truth. And so it seems ironic that this story has often been used as the foundation for a so-called biblical argument that would forbid people like me from seeking the “suitable partner” who would complete our lives.
God intended us to love. It’s that simple.
Even the Catechism of our church affirms that this is so: “Love is the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being” 2392.
We find this connection, this oneness, in many ways. Those ways are sometimes imperfect or transitory, sometimes sublime and irrevocable, but always based on that central impulse to belong to someone besides ourselves, as God intended.