Made For Another. Made For The Other. | Word from the Shepherd No. 149

Bishop's Homilies

27th Ordinary Sunday B
Gn.2:18-24; Heb.2:9-11; Mk.10:2-16

Joan Baez, a musician, wrote these words:

“No man is an island, no man stands alone; each man’s joy is joy to me, each man’s grief is my own. We need one another, so I will defend each man as my brother…each man as my friend“.

Today’s focus is beyond marriage and divorce, beyond adultery.

It is about our destiny, that we may be individuals, different and unique, and yet there is something that seeks the other to unite with, to merge with or to build with. There are many indicators.

  1. The anima and the animus in the human psyche. Depth psychology state that we are born with the male and female within, that none of us are pure males or females. When the two merge, we become a richer individual.
  2. The love in marriage. Loving couples have bloomed into beautiful persons, and transformed their partnership into life-giving relationship.
  3. Communities of love. There is longing in some for covenanted love, a readiness to suffer and sanctify one another and live shared prosperity. They forge a unity or a bonding which is often an envy of the outsiders.
  4. The deep desire within to “become one with God“, the great Other, to attain this unitive state, which is the end of all spiritual journeys, is the final indicator. The saints and the mystics describe it as “God-in-me and I-in-God” experience.

There are 3 ways we can respond to this “invitation to build with the other“.

  1. We STAY-OUT: We choose to be non-committal. We prefer to be an island.
  2. We OPT FOR IT with conditions: We want control, our way. There is no love.
  3. We OPT FOR IT without reservations: We yield. We trust. We seek the betterment of the other. We desire this encounter.

But the facts are, whether we subscribe to it or not, we have been created for union, for another, for love.

  1. Note the URGE within for this union. It begins as attraction.
  2. Note the MOTIVE or the drive within. Is it seeking to control and dominate, or seeking the betterment of the other, or  love and be lovable?
  3. Note the emerging NEWNESS. The new person we are becoming? The new level of relationship? The transformed new community?

Joan Baez reminds us again: “No man is an island. No man stands alone”.

We are made for someone. We are made for other. Above all, we are made for love and for God.