Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, B

	Genesis 2: 18-24
	Psalm 128
	Hebrews 2: 9-11
	Mark 10: 2-16  MYM#26, Let the Little Children Come to Me

The readings discuss the nature of marriage and divorce.  The story of the creation of man 
and woman, the second of these stories in the book of Genesis, puts man in center of 
creation--being made first, and then naming the other creatures.  God’s forming of 
woman from the sleeping man is not primarily an act of subordination; it is an act of 
complimentarity, shown by the man’s statement, “This one, at last, is bone of my bone 
and flesh of my flesh!”  The last sentence of the pericope is quoted in the Gospel for 
today:  “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, 
and the two of them become one flesh.”  The psalm gives a picture of family life for those 
“who fear the Lord and walk in His ways,” as well as a connection with Jesus’ action of 
taking and blessing the children (“your children like olive plants around your table”).  In 
the Gospel, Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees about the permissibility of divorce.  This 
was a hot item for discussion in the Pharisee movement of Jesus’ day.   The two primary 
schools of rabbinic thought disagreed; the school of Shammai forbade divorce totally; the 
school of Hillel gave the answer that the Pharisees gave to Jesus in today’s Gospel (10:4).  
Jesus, citing Genesis, goes with the stricter opinion, saying that it was permitted under the 
Mosaic law because of “the hardness of your hearts,” i.e., sin.  Both of these readings 
attribute the source of marriage to God, Himself.  

Tertullian says, “What kind of yoke is that of two believers who share one hope, one 
desire, one discipline, one service?  They enjoy kinship in spirit and in flesh.  They are 
mutual servants with no discrepancy of interests.  Truly they are ‘two in one flesh.’  
Where the flesh is one, the spirit is one as well.  Together they pray, together bow down, 
together perform their fasts, mutually teaching, mutually entreating, mutually upholding.  
In the church of God they hold an equal place.  They stand equally at the banquet of god, 
equally in crises, equally facing persecutions, and equally in refreshments.  Neither hides 
anything from the other.  Neither neglects the other.  Neither is troublesome to the other.”  
To his wife, 2.8

Today we begin a six-week, in-course reading from the Letter to the Hebrews.  The letter 
helps us to see the growth in knowledge in the Church of the understanding of Jesus 
being both “completely God” and “completely human.”  Though divine, he became “for a 
little while lower than the angels” so that he could “become perfect through suffering.”  
This does not mean that Jesus started out bad or insufficient and then became good; 
“perfect” here means that he achieved completely what God had in store for him.  In order 
for him to be an adequate High Priest, he had to know what humanity experienced—and 
this he accomplished in his incarnation and passion.

This hymn is based on today’s Scriptures:
It is not good to be alone,
Said God in gracious plan;
So, living in community,
Placed woman there with man.

The fullness of this mystery
Is found in married love,
Which may not be by us unpaired,
Since joined by God above.

The Lord was angry when his friends
Sought children to forestall;
“To such as these, God’s reign belongs!”
He hugged and blessed them all.

The Lord, who made and blessed all love,
In Jesus has revealed
Salvation’s work in all His pain—
That we from sin be healed.

	CM   
	suggested tune:  Azmon

Propers from the Roman Gradual

Introit:  In voluntate tua (Esther 13: 9-11)
O Lord, you are ruler over all things,
for the universe is in your power, 
and there is no one who can oppose you and your powerful will,
for you have made everything that is,
heaven and the earth and every wonderful thing which lies beneath the heavens:
you are the Lord of all things.
	Happy are they whose way is blameless,
	who walk in the law of the Lord.

Offertory:  Vir erat in terra (Job 1:1 passim)
There was a man in the land whose name was Job,
blameless and upright, and one who feared God.
This man Satan sought out, that he might tempt him:
and power was given unto him by the Lord,
over his possessions and over his cattle;
by this he lost all of his goods and his possessions, and also his sons:
furthermore, Job’s whole body was smitten with loathsome sores.

Communion:  In salutari tuo (Ps. 119:81,84,86)
My soul has longed for your salvation, and I have put my trust in your word.
When will you give judgment against those who persecute me?
They persecute me with lies; O be my helper, O Lord my God.

Propers from the Simple Gradual

The suite of antiphons and psalms from Ordinary Time VIII 
(BFW 281–287, as well as BFW 645, 210–211, 413–414, and 123) — 
God is true to God’s name, “I will be with you” — is especially appropriate.

Response: BFW 474 (They greatly delight in your  . . . ) 
    or alleluia psalm BFW 476 
Gospel acclamation: BFW 475
Offertory: BFW 477 (Those who hope in you . . . shall inherit. . .) 
    or BFW 277 (How happy are they who fear the Lord)
Communion: BFW 479 (See what blessings will come . . .)