FAMILIES

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B
October 13, 2024 – 10:30 AM
Saint Cecilia Catholic Community
Sadrac Camacho
Is 53:10-11 | Ps 33:4-5, 18-19, 20, 22
Heb 4:14-16 | Mk 10:35-45

+In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Families. They come in all shapes and sizes, especially in the 21st century. There used to be a time in Western society when the idealized, no, the required mode of familial arrangement was the nuclear family. Husband, wife, kids, and a picket fence. Not to mention the other blatantly anti-Christian racial division we saw in marriage, a product of this nation’s laws in a dark moment of its history. Luckily, that’s not the case anymore; interracial families can not only legally establish their marriage but prosper with it, use its fruits for the benefit of society, a society that is now able to celebrate their love with open arms. Today, we also see families where no marriage is present; I was raised in a family in which my mother and former step-father had created a life together but simply never got around to making it official. This followed my mothers separation from my biological Father. And indeed in many families, you see this kind of makeup. Some families are created in the aftermath of divorce, and we see here families tied together by more than blood. Children from other relationships and a step-parent come together to form something called a family. And it is no less a family because of those circumstances. So it strikes me as alarming that certain individuals in hyper traditionalist circles have begun an effort to socially outcast families they don’t believe to be “Biblical,” calling them “pretend families.” Now, this is an obvious instance of selective outrage, of working backwards from our biases, hate, and prejudices to arrive at the Biblical ammunition that best shoots down already marginalized people. The premise itself seems to be so deeply un-Christian. You’re telling me the Jesus of Nazareth, the Word Made Flesh, who as is stated in our Reading from Hebrews, made himself “lower than the angels”, who stripped himself of his divine privileges, and associated himself with the outcasts of society, did this precisely so that we could, under his name and banner, go and make outcasts of people who don’t fit our molds. Does that make any sense whatsoever? That at least should give these hyper traditionalist types pause.  

But I say this is selective outrage because the hate is so blatantly manicured to target only a fraction of the supposed “anti-Biblical” familial arrangements that have sprung up in the modern age. How many times have you heard a pastor or preacher, from any denomination, condemning, often in extended sermons, the Godless and disordered families made up by LGBT+ individuals. This is not an uncommon occurrence. But then ask again how many times those same preachers or pastors have talked about domestic violence in the family, how many times do they talk about child abuse in the home; how often do they work to dismantle the hushed conversations and taboos that allow children to be illegally exploited by adults for self-gratification at home, that allow spousal sexual abuse to run rampant. All of this is certainly antithetical to Christianity. And it is happening in our homes at higher rates than there are LGBT individuals to count. And yet so curiously, the focus of these hypertraditionalist types is singular. Condemn. Destroy. Eradicate from society the social structures that allow us to have families of all shapes and colors. Indeed, we see a push to re-establish that almost mythic nuclear family of before, with the husband, wife, kids, and picket fence–and there are no alternatives. 

But even they don’t realize that what they push for is completely incompatible with supposedly Biblical marriage. It defies logic to think you can export the mores, beliefs, and dynamics of a society from thousands of years ago to today and have an identical familial arrangement. In Jesus’ time women were essentially property; marriage was a largely economic institution. Neither I nor the hypertraditionalist types talk about it in those terms these days though. When a pastor goes to a young man and works to pray the gay away, does he ever tell him, this is so you can engage in an economic contract? Of course, not. They promise these men love. The current way they love is wrong; they need to find a new way to love and a different sex to love. But nevertheless marriage is talked about in those terms. And yet we never hear people talking about returning women to a subservient role as part of bridal economy. Sure, we do hear all manner of other sexist beliefs but not usually these. And that’s why the outrage against these supposedly un-Biblical families is so selective. People feel empowered to say their particular marriage was ordained by God’s Will according to his word, that their marriage is done “according to the Bible,” but then ask why it is acceptable to tweak and play around with the structure of marriage, with the duties of wife and husband, without one utterance from God but it is not okay for other families to do the same. To tweak around some of the parameters and arrive at the same thing–a family. Whether these people are LGBT, divorced, or different colors. There is hardly a good answer. And its obvious why. God has not written down for you an exemption. He did not tell you, you could change marriage from its biblical age meaning, he did not say to end the practice of placing women in a subservient role. He simply didn’t. 

But then again, did God ever really call you to live a “Biblical” marriage. Did Jesus ever call on you, a person in the modern world, to adapt in every single respect the modes of understanding and life of people in his time. Obviously not. He wasn’t talking to you. You are actually privy to something else entirely. When you open our Gospel reading, you’re not hearing decrees from Jesus; he is not tabulating new law at you. You are instead listening in on a conversation. Not one between he and you but rather between Jesus and the Pharisees. And listen to what they say. The Pharisees say women can simply be discharged from the marriage at will according to Mosaic law. Jesus responds “because of the hardness of your hearts” you cannot divide the one flesh that God has joined together, as is stated in the creation narrative of Genesis. This teaching on divorce was shaped by a particular social and historical context. In Jesus’ time, women were economically and socially dependent on their husbands. If divorce were allowed without restriction, women could be left destitute and outcast. Jesus, recognizing this vulnerability, prohibited divorce to protect them. The “hardness of heart” He refers to wasn’t just personal. It reflected a society that often treated women as disposable.

But Jesus’ message goes deeper. He pointed to the beginning of creation, where man and woman were made equal, both in the image of God. He referenced Genesis, where Eve is created from Adam’s side, not from his head or his feet, symbolizing equality, unity, and mutual support. “The two shall become one flesh,” He said, meaning that in marriage, the two are inseparable, intertwined, reflecting God’s divine vision for relationships. This oneness reminds us that marriage is not about domination but about unity and partnership, as seen in God’s original plan for humanity.

Now, as we have softened some of the “hardness” in our hearts and society, we can live more fully into this vision. We don’t need to remain bound by the limitations of the past. Guided by the Holy Spirit, we are called to live in love and recognize that we are all part of one body–one family–in Christ. Adam and Eve, our allegorical ancestors, represent the whole of humanity. Through what we call “merism–where two parts represent a whole–male and female together show that everyone is included in God’s plan. If we are all one body, then those who are outcast by society, those who don’t fit traditional molds of family or status, are still part of that family.

Jesus calls us to embrace the vulnerable, the marginalized, the ones society tries to cast aside. Just as He protected women from being discarded in His time, we are called to make sure that no one is left without dignity or security. The “one flesh” that Jesus spoke of is not just a message for married couples–it’s a message for all of us. We are one in Christ, and that unity calls us to love, protect, and include everyone, especially those who are pushed to the margins. Let us embrace this call to love, to welcome, and to live as one family in Christ. Amen.

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