A Homily for the Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Genesis 2:18-24 Hebrews 2:9-11 Mark 10:2-16
It would be wonderful, would it not, if God would only answer the question, “What’s it all about?” The almost endless galaxies, the enormous expanse of time in which they were fashioned and our purpose on this earth. What is it all about?
Suppose you were granted an audience with God—just you—and God, as an accommodating host, agreed to appear to you in a manner you might have been led to expect. So he is an old man, with white hair and a beard, sitting on a throne. The twist—he throws this in on his own—is that he reminds you of a much beloved older relative. Let’s say a great aunt, so gentle and almost mischievous.
“You have a question?”
“Well…yes.” You are hesitant. The audacity of the creature questioning the creator has suddenly come home to you. “I’d like to know what it’s all about. Why did you create what you did…as you did?”
“You know”—there is that impish grin—“I think that I can show you better than I can God-splain it to you.” He pulls from the collar of his white robe a picture locket, which he wears over his heart.
“Wow!” you think to yourself. “This will be something to see!”
The Almighty seems to take forever to open the thing. Evidently, those hands typically take on greater tasks. But eventually, with a gleam of satisfaction, it is opened, and the Lord lets you have a look.
It is you! It is a picture of you! Really, it is somehow every picture of you: you as a baby, you in first grade, you graduating from high school, you walking down the aisle. That is—as we say—the nature of eternity. Everything is in bloom at once.
“Me? The meaning of the universe is me?” This is not simply too good to be true. It is downright nonsensical. “Lord, it can’t all come down to me. Even with my inflated sense of self, I can’t believe that it all comes down to me.”
“It did when I created you,” says the Ancient of Days. “If the galaxies had been enough, if every other soul I had ever created or planned to create had been enough, I would not have created you. What can I say? You complete me. I could not be who I want to be without you. I want to be your creator, your redeemer, your beloved. You see, I’m not just a lot of love, the origin of love. I am love itself, and I eternally choose to love you. If all the rest had been sufficient for my love, I would not have needed to create you.”
God goes on to explain. “Can’t you see that this is why I gave Eve to Adam, or Adam to Eve? From my perspective, the sequence doesn’t matter. I wanted each of them to know love, to know my love, to feel my love. I created marriage as a way of telling you that you are loved by me. I’ll admit, folks have thrown some kinks into it, but I’ll have the sacrament gleaming with glory come eternity.”
God continues. “And I’ll also admit that you don’t always feel loved by me. You’re not convinced that I created it all for you, at the very moment I decided to create you. They were the same moment, you see. Well, no, you can’t possibly see that right now. Just trust me. I created it all because I love you. Can’t you see that?”
The Almighty seems to have become almost distressed. No, urgent. “You can’t see it, can’t feel it because you’ve lost your way. You’re walking under clouds you’ve spun. If you would just look into my eyes in prayer. If you would just come to me there.
“You see, that’s why as the Son of the Father I came into the world. So that you could always see a pair of eyes, looking at you in love. So that you could come into my arms whenever you come to prayer.” The lover of our souls is getting teared up at this point. He seems embarrassed but not nearly so much as you are.
“I’ve got to go!” you mutter.
“You do?”
“Yes, but don’t think that I’m not ever so grateful. I truly am. This changes everything, but I need time to think it through, to take it in.”
“Of course, dearest one. I understand. That’s why I’ve given you all the days you call your life. They will pass ever so quickly, but they’re just enough to convince you of the one truth that truly matters. I did it all for you—he reaches out to touch your cheek—because I love you, and I always will.”
