Gospel: Mark 10: 2-16

 

Last Wednesday in St Peter’s Basilica, the Eucharistic celebration opened the XV Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. 

 

The Synod Fathers, coming from every part of the world and meeting around the Successor of Peter, will reflect for three weeks on young people, the faith and vocational discernment. 

 

The Holy Father and the Bishops will keep their gaze fixed on Jesus so as to identify, on the basis of his teaching of truth and mercy, the most opportune paths for the appropriate commitment of the Church with young people, so that the original plan of the Creator for man and woman may be implemented and operate in all its beauty and its strength in today’s world.

 

This Sunday’s Liturgy presents the fundamental text of the Book of Genesis on the complementarity and reciprocity between man and woman. Therefore — the Bible states — a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and the two become one flesh, that is, one life, one existence. 

 

In this unity, spouses pass on life to new human beings: they become parents. They participate in the creative power of God himself. God is love, and one participates in his work when one loves with Him and like Him. 

 

For this purpose — St Paul states — love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 

 

In the text of today’s Gospel, Jesus gives advice concerning the relationship between wife and husband and between mothers and children. In those days, many people were excluded and marginalized. For instance, in the relationship between husband and wife, male domination prevailed. 

 

In the relationship between husband and wife, Jesus commanded the greatest equality. In the relationship between mothers and children, he commanded the greatest warmth and tenderness. This is the love which is given to spouses in the Sacrament of Marriage. It is love that nourishes their relationship, through joy and pain, untroubled and difficult moments. It is love that gives rise to the desire to bear children, to await them, welcome them, raise them, teach them. 

 

It is the same love which, in today’s Gospel, Jesus shows toward children: “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God”.

 

I invite you to support the works of the Synod with prayer, so that the Holy Spirit may render the Synod Fathers fully docile to his inspiration. Let us invoke the maternal intercession of the Virgin Mary, uniting us spiritually to those who in the Shrine of Pompeii, will recite today the “Prayer to Our Lady of the Rosary”.