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Fr. Sean Conroy preaches on the readings for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time on October 3, 2021. -"Then God said: Let us make human beings in our image, after our likeness." (Genesis 1:26) -"God looked at everything he had made, and found it very good." (Genesis 1:31) -"The LORD God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him." (Genesis 2:18) "The man gave names to all the tame animals, all the birds of the air, and all the wild animals; but none proved to be a helper suited to the man." (Genesis 2:20) -"So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman. When he brought her to the man, the man said:“This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man this one has been taken." (Genesis 2:21-23) -From the side of Adam is the birth of woman, just as from the side of Christ, from that rib, is the birth of the Church, where blood and water flowed forth from the cross. Just as God puts Adam in a deep sleep and does this amazing work to create woman, to create Eve out of him, so, too, sometimes God has to put us to sleep to work on us as well. -Fr. Sean -"That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body." (Genesis 2:24) -This happens before the Fall, the plan for marriage, that man and woman are called to cling to another. That two become one. The beauty of this: The symbol of marriage pointing ultimately to God and what He wants to do with us, that God wants to come into our hearts, come into our lives, and espouse Himself to each one of us. An image for the Church as well: Jesus the bridegroom, the Church His bride. This is why Jesus quotes this, the original plan for marriage. -Fr. Sean - (Mark 10:2-4) - (Mark 10:5-9) -The marriage covenant is an indissoluble bond, that binds a man and woman together, that cannot be separate, and Jesus teaches us that today. This is something that the Church has continuously taught. I want to make it clear though, that for those that are divorced, the Church loves them and reaches out to them, continuously calling them into God's love and mercy. But the Church will continue to invite those who are divorced and remarried, invite them deeper into the Church as well. -Fr. Sean -"In the house the disciples again questioned him 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.'” (Mark 10:10-12) -The house that Jesus is in with the apostles is a symbol for the Church. This homily is meant for those who are walking with Jesus, who have a prayer life. But maybe if you haven't been to church in awhile, this homily is not meant for you, but for those who are in that house, who are pursuing Jesus, who are in relationship with Him. -Fr. Sean -"It is a fundamental duty of the Church to reaffirm strongly, as the Synod Fathers did, the doctrine of the indissolubility of marriage. To all those who, in our times, consider it too difficult, or indeed impossible, to be bound to one person for the whole of life, and to those caught up in a culture that rejects the indissolubility of marriage and openly mocks the commitment of spouses to fidelity, it is necessary to reconfirm the good news of the definitive nature of that conjugal love that has in Christ its foundation and strength." (Pope St. John Paul II, Familiaris Consortio) -What does your conscience dread? What's burdening your conscience right now? Maybe there's places in your heart that need healing. Maybe it has to do with divorce, wounds of divorce, maybe it has to do with other things that are on your heart right now. What is Jesus inviting you to bring to Him today? -Fr. Sean