Be Fruitful And Multiply And Fill The Earth

Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Course 2024

What a timely set of readings are offered to the Church today, in the midst of a Western cultural breakdown, international wars, and an epically contentious national election in the U.S. Genesis had, in chapter one, recorded God’s first commandment, chronologically speaking: God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”

So we are created in God’s own image, and we are created as two, male and female only. With His blessing, God told us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and be its stewards. I like to tell my offspring that the command to multiply means to “times” the man and woman by a number greater than one. What God doesn’t tell the man and woman is the definition of “fill the earth.” We can infer that He will let us know when the earth is full.

Today’s reading from Genesis reveals a part of the “how” of God’s creation, and the “how” of the multiplication. One of the great quotations from the Almighty, All-loving God is "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." And then the story shows clearly that the man declares, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Thus the equality of dignity of man and woman is declared, and the man’s need for the woman is certified. Biological science has confirmed it. I say frequently that men are very good at some things a human family needs, but he is terrible at others, the nurturing functions. I call that a “y-chromosome defect.” The young women in my classes get a kick out of that. But it’s true. Men need women; women need men. The beautiful psalm we have just sung is a celebration of the mutual love established for the foundation of human families.

Our Lord Jesus Christ, in today’s Gospel, quotes Moses’ story in Genesis when asked if divorce is lawful. As He teaches, we must infer from the one-flesh reality that God is the origin of every marriage, and its support. That means only God can dissolve a lawful union, which is why we have strict rules in the Church about separation, and a clear set of procedures to be followed when a couple requests a declaration of nullity. That’s a ruling that because of some defect, a valid sacramental marriage never existed. Only after that is done may one seek to marry someone else.

Now the little story at the end of today’s passage from St. Mark seems to be tacked on with duct tape. But that’s not correct. Just as the Lord, at the creation, was divinely concerned His human creatures bear and bring up new generations to honor and praise Him, to live as He commanded, so the Lord Jesus valued those new generations. One of the two principal ends of marriage is the procreation of offspring. They are to be treasured. That was kind of radical for the first century, but as Western populations start to collapse in this century, as people either don’t marry or intentionally plan never to have children, we are re-evaluating our twentieth century worry about exploding populations.

Of the three Synoptic Gospel writers, Mark was the only one to record the emotional response of Jesus when His disciples tried to shoo away the children who came to be touched. Mark describes Christ as “aganakteo”. The word means “really, really upset.” He rebuked His disciples in front of everyone, and nobody forgot what He said, “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them.

So being child-like (not childish) is a pre-requisite for entrance into God’s eternal presence. That means, of course, to humbly and gratefully walk in the company of Christ, and to learn from Him, who was the paradigm of filial conduct, who always did the will of His Father.

And there’s one critical part of that humble and grateful walk, becoming more and more like Jesus Christ. How do we become perfect? Logically, that would be by acting as Jesus acted, all the way to the end of our life. How did Jesus become perfect? The letter to the Hebrews answers that question, and it’s a little hard in our weakness to acknowledge, to accept. The path of Jesus led back to the Father through a dark valley: “for a little while [Jesus] was made lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through suffering.”