Twenty-seventh Sunday of Ordinary time cycle B

Mark 10:2-16

During one of my philosophy courses in college, the professor spoke in a sort of monotone with eyes closed.  But if you listened, he was brilliant.  Many of our classmates weren’t listening.  They would read the assigned sections from the textbook and sort of doze through the classes.  It came time for the final exam.  It was an essay exam and there were four questions.  One student who had been listening was running out of time and barely started to answer the fourth question.  Another student, who had been dozing, answered all four questions in neat little paragraphs and turned in his workbook five minutes before the end of the time.  Later, he discovered that he had only gotten a C and the guy who had been listening but only answered three of the four questions had gotten an A.  He was outraged and went to the professor for an explanation.  The professor told him that he had indeed shown that he could memorize information, but the student who had been listening clearly had learned to think, which was what the professor was going for.

When we hear the first part of this gospel, we modern people focus on divorce.  Did Jesus really forbid divorce?  I suspect that this was a question the earliest Christians had to ask themselves, because Matthew and Luke, writing about twenty years after Mark, leave an opening.  They have Jesus saying “except for pornea” a word which has been translated in many ways -- indecency, impurity, prostitution, homosexual actions, marriage of first cousins, and so forth.  So our Protestant friends who do permit divorce have a way around Jesus’ commandment.  But we Catholics aren’t any better.  We have annulments, and recently I heard a priest proudly state that in our diocese, 95% of the cases brought before the tribunal are granted annulments.  

But maybe we shouldn’t focus on divorce, maybe instead we should think about what Jesus is saying in a broader sense.  During his time, there were different schools of thought among the Pharisees.  Some said the husband could divorce his wife for any reason.  Another said it had to be an awfully good reason, like adultery, like abandonment.  But it was always something a man did to his wife, never the other way around.   The Pharisees were interested in getting C’s, getting passing grades.  What was the minimum needed to comply with Moses’ admittedly vague rule that a man could divorce his wife?  But Jesus points to the ideal, that the whole purpose of marriage was that the man would leave father and mother -- and everything else that would try to compete for his loyalty -- and cling or cleave to his wife -- make her his priority -- and of course it goes the opposite way as well.  That’s the ideal everyone should strive for, that’s the A plus that married couples should be trying to get.

One lady I know made a very profound statement.  “I don’t have to be the best wife.  I have to be the best wife for my husband.”  If he has the same attitude as she does, that marriage will survive, that marriage will get an A plus.

And divorce isn’t the only thing.  We are all looking for what it takes to get a C in life.  It’s a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday.  But what if I have Covid?  What if I live twenty miles from the nearest church?  You’re not supposed to do servile work on Sundays.  Somehow my mother interpreted that to mean you could do up to an hour of servile work, which is how I ended up pushing a lawnmower around on Sunday.  If the cashier returns a ten-dollar bill instead of a one when making change, and I find out about it when I get home, what do I do?  What if it’s a five-dollar bill?  What if it’s a nickel?  We celebrated Saint Francis this last week.  When he got religion, he went for the A plus -- getting rid of everything that might hold him back, relationships with his parents, his possessions, even his clothing that his parents had given him.  

So I think that’s something that hits home with me.  I certainly have no interest in divorcing my wife and you probably don’t either.  But am I going through life looking for c’s or do I strive for A’s?  How about you?

And that’s probably why Jesus directs us to look at little children, who he says have the secret of the kingdom of heaven.  When a little child gets interested in something, she pulls out all stops.  When he has decided that a particular game or toy would make his life complete, he will nag until his parents finally give in -- of course we parents know that if you can outwait him, his interests will turn somewhere else at some point.  I’m old, but I can remember when I was about five, how badly I wanted to dress up like a cowboy -- and sure enough, I got a hat and a bandana and a belt with a holster for a toy gun for my birthday, and life was complete, at least for that day.

So Jesus is saying that the kingdom of heaven is open to people who are looking for A’s and will not settle for C’s.  How are our grades?