Essence Of The Kingdom

Speaker: Archbishop Loren Thomas Hines

October 07, 2024

in Spritual Growth

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October 6, 2024:
Readings: Genesis 2:18-24
Hebrews 2:9-13
Mark 10:2-9

20th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2024

As human beings, we sometimes have attitudes that are not in tune with what God has intended for us to have. Psalm 8: 1-4 “LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens. Through the praise of children and infants you have established a stronghold against your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength. We may not realize it but there is so much power in this. The minute a baby is born, his cry is a declaration of life. And who can create life except God? No one can do this except God. Man was created and crowned with glory and majesty. He blessed man to be fruitful and to be able to multiply. We came from God. We were created in the image and likeness of God. Sin only entered when Adam and Eve believed in the enemy’s deception. Just as the enemy has deceived them, he is still deceiving us today. In Creation, God said that it was not good for man to be alone. That He would give man a helpmeet to be suitable to him. He took out a rib from the man, and fashioned the woman. And God blessed them, male and female.

In the Gospel today, we see the Pharisees testing Jesus and asking Him about the law of Divorce because Moses permitted it. Jesus said it was because of the hardness of their hearts. What God has established from the beginning still stands. Matthew 19:6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

The Jews regarded marriage in the highest level, but today it’s a whole different story. Matthew 19:4 Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female.” Matthew 5:31-32 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.’ Aside from regarding marriage in a high level, chastity to them was one of the highest virtues.

The power of unity is shown so perfectly in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In our lives, there is the conflict between the mind and the spirit, and they are not in unity. In the Holy Eucharist, the unity is evident when we partake of Christ’s Body and Blood. That unity brings forth strength and power in us. And it is in unity that the eventual kingdom will be made manifest to all mankind. Our beginnings point back to the proclamation made to us in Genesis. In our lives today, when we disobey, we don’t live in unity with God. When we disobey God, we will find ourselves in trouble.

But the day will come when we will find out what God has intended man to be. Even before we were born, God had already paid the penalty of our sins. God made the man and woman as one. Christ went to the cross so that we might become one with Him. We need to let God be God.