Homily for the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 6, 2024

Welcome to the Word at St Francis, a welcoming and inclusive parish community coming to you from E 96th St in New York City. The Gospel is Mk 10:2-12: The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, "Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?"  They were testing him. He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?"  They replied, "Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her."  But Jesus told them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment.  But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.  For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate."  In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.  He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."