Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, 7th October

Mark 10:2–16

Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus
they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What
did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate
of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your
hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 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, let no one separate.” Then in the house the disciples asked him again
about this matter. 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.” People were bringing little children to
him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them.
But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little
children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the
kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom
of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms,
laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

 

Reflection

 

•      How
I live out my own vocation in life as fully as possible?

•      Am I receptive to the kingdom, since
it comes to me as free gift from God’s bountiful hands?