Readings: Gen 2:18-24; Psalm 127; Heb 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16
Theme: It is not good that man should be alone
- The Loneliness of Man
The first two chapters of the book of Genesis contain the creation history, creation out of nothing (creatio ex nihilo). In the first creation account (Gen 1) the last thing to be created is humankind (ha-adam).
In the second creation account (Gen 2) this humankind is precisely presented as ‘man’, in order to prepare room for the coming of man’s helper. God created man and put him in a garden.
In the whole of creation account, there is something spectacular, and that is the fact that at different stages of creation, it is repeatedly said that God saw that what he has created is good (wayyare Elohim ki-tov) (cf Gen 1:4,12,18,25,31).
As we are joyfully rejoicing in the goodness of God’s creation, surprising comes the opposite. In that creation which God saw to be very good, lies something that for God, is not good.
God saw the loneliness of man, and immediately recognized that ‘it is not good (lo-tov). And as a solution, God decided to close-up the loneliness of man. God who made man, understood him, recognized his problem, and went forth in providing its solution.
God knows us more than we know ourselves. He is the one who created us and he knows what our needs are. He comes to our need even before we are aware of them. We must always trust and believe this.
In the creation of man, we are told that man was created in the image and likeness of God. God who lives in the communion of the Father, Son, and Spirit, created man to be like him. If God is a family, and created man in his own image and likeness, then man is incomplete and lonely outside family, outside community, outside companionship.
- The Solution to Man’s Loneliness
In the first account of creation, everything was already created, and man was the last to be created. Hence, man came as the overseer of God’s creation.
But in the second account of creation, the creation of animals came as a way of providing solution to man’s loneliness. God created all the animals, presenting them to man, so that man gives them their names. To give name in Hebrew tradition connotes authority and acceptance.
So, it means that God gave man the authority and permission to occupy his position as ‘Padrone’. Man accepted the animals, recognized them, integrated them, but none was suitable to him as partner. Lastly, God built isshah (what English calls woman).
And immediately issh (man) saw the woman, he immediately recognized him because in her exists something of man, the ribs. But it is interesting to see the processes God went through in solving man’s problem.
First, he presented the animals, even though God knew they wouldn’t be the solution, but he wanted man to pass through that process of discernment and decision-making. So also in our different spheres of life. God guides us through different stages, in order to prepare us through decision-making and discernment. Again, not everything is meant to be suitable as man’s companion.
Somethings are good but not suitable. When the man was going through the animals, naming them, the Scripture did not day that they were not good for man as companions, but that they were not suitable, they did not correspond (דֶגֶנ/ neged) to man’s kind.
Immediately saw issh, he recognized her as ‘suitable’ because as the Scripture ‘out of issh (man) this (isshah/woman) was taken. Each and everyone of us is suitable as companion for others because in each one of us exists something recognizable by others. Hence, we are all called to live in companionship, in friendship, and as a family.
- Going back to the Beginning
In the gospel, the Pharisees came to Jesus and asked him “is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ In the first reading, the man recognized his woman as the bone of my bone and the flesh of my flesh.
That means, the woman is intrinsically and substantially part of his existence. It took man a long process before he arrived at choosing this woman and recognizing her as his most suitable companion. Hence, originally for the man, there is no existence without the woman.
Now, going through the question of the Pharisees, and placing it in the original beginning of things, it is contradictory for a man to place his woman, that is, the bone of his bone, and the flesh of his flesh, under divorce. Jesus responded to them by presenting man and his woman, not as two different persons but as one bone and one flesh. A wife is not a disposable tool nor one of the animals but a suitable companion.
Jesus admitted that Moses permitted the people to dismiss their wives but that was not because originally it was so, but because of their unteachable nature and their hardened hearts. In this way, Jesus confirms that not everything which is permitted by men is godly and permitted by God. Just as not everything which is good is suitable, not everything which is lawful is godly.
Hence, no matter our argument in support of certain cultural and social practices, even if they are permitted, the question remains, “are they suitable and godly? Are they permitted by God?” Are they part of God’s original plan?’ Christ came to restore creation to that original plan of God.
And with his blood, he took away from us our old selves and unteachable persons and restored us to the original state which at creation, at the very beginning, was God’s plan and desire for us.
As the letter to the Hebrews in the second reading of today says, Jesus came in order to restore all things to its originality. And part of this is man in his relationship with others.
I wish you a very wonderful Sunday and a great new week
Rev. Fr. Henry Chukwuezugo Nnamah
Catholic Diocese of Aguleri.