Humanity Sunday
Genesis 2:18-24; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16
We may choose to blame St. Augustine for “inventing” the term “Original Sin”, arguing that he gave creation a bad press, by harping on sin; what remains irrefutable prior to and since St. Augustine is that every generation of human beings perfects on the sins of previous generations. It is not just the case of Original Sin, it is the evidence of Progressive Sin, because sin remains with us even today! The option some of us have chosen is to insist on “Original Bless”, because God blessed all he created. We look at all the good that every generation does and we gloss over the evil legacy it passes on and perpetuates. This Sunday is “Humanity Sunday”! Our readings insist on “complementary” and “solidarity” as the only way to acknowledge the God that dwells in us and empowers us to do great things. Today, it is NEITHER Original Sin NOR Original Blessing that matters, but the God of Creation who left us a legacy of complementarity and solidarity as keys to making Heaven out of Earth.
Our first reading expresses complementarity and solidarity as the first law of Humanity Sunday — no one can go it alone! It was God who exclaimed: “The Lord God said: ‘It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.’” Our first reading is contrary to the joke I heard recently: “men keep complaining that they don’t understand women: how can you understand what was created while you were sleeping?” Innocuous as this joke maybe, it contains a theological truth worth reflecting upon—the mystery of sleep and creation. For a society devoid of symbolic language, “sleep” is emptied of its power. Just imagine a sleeping giant, how vulnerable he/she is! Let’s suppose your enemy fires a missile against you and your missile defense shield is down for whatever reason — your vulnerability becomes evident. The sleep of “the Man” of our first reading reveals how powerless the human person is, and how God works wonders within the vulnerability of the human person. You see, it is NEITHER Original Sin NOR Original Blessing that matters, but the God of Creation. God remains active, even when “the Man” slept and he brought “the woman” into existence without the power of “the Man”.
Humanity Sunday argues that God works wonders through the synergy of male and female. For example, God created the first male and female, but left the responsibility of creation in the hands of men and women. This is the origin of human migration, before it became continental: “That is why a man LEAVES his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh”. Human migration guarantees the safeguard of the human species through complementarity and solidarity. While “the Man” slept, “the woman” was busy with the things a sleeping person could not do. Complementarity and solidarity, when everyone is valued as indispensable in societal architectural design, makes God work effectively among human beings. Lone wolves make God’s miracle of unity near impossible!
Instead of the instinct of self-defense and extermination, the primordial instinct is that of hospitality and affirmation. When the sleeping man woke up and God brought the woman to him, he exclaimed: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of ‘her man’ this one has been taken.” Humanity Sunday teaches us the lesson of unity, in order to topple human divisions. It is the God who creates, who also initiates migration towards the other, to complete/complement the other. Standing alone is death! No matter the number of corpses in a cemetery, there is no complementarity among them, because they are no longer human — flesh and blood, male and female!
If God made sleep an opportunity to create the woman, Jesus makes “childlikeness” the recipe for keeping unity alive. The question of divorce and remarriage, in our gospel, rejects the original humanity of our first reading, where complementarity and solidarity is the abode of God’s power to keep unity alive. The person with the power to write the writ-of-divorce turns into the adversary of “humanity” for the person on the part of reversed migration — the rejection of unity and the support of division. Selective or Legal Complementarity neglects the human and privileges nurtured consensus. Jesus’ choice of a child’s hospitality and acceptance, prior to being indoctrinated by the society to imbibe division, is a call to what nature does — hospitality, as against what nurture invents — hostility and division. This is where Jesus’ remark become judicious: “Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Making Heaven out of Earth is impossible without human complementarity and solidarity.
There is a third element to Humanity Sunday, besides the promotion of complementarity, solidarity and unity. Humanity Sunday makes God to be part of humanity. Our second reading consecrates humanity, that is, human nature, because God himself shares in that nature and makes humanity more powerful than disunity: “Jesus, ‘for a little while’, was made ‘lower than the angels,’ that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone”. In Jesus Christ, humanity wears a divine image, beyond the vagaries of instability and mutation. Now we see the unity between sleep and creation: what humanity could not do in its sleep/weakness, God does, provided humanity keeps alive the childlike hospitality that conforms it to God, instead of the violence of division and separation occasioned by nurture. For a Christian, humanity and divinity are inseparable without fomenting chaos.
Humanity Sunday emphasizes the indispensability of God in human affairs, if unity must be guaranteed. The moment God is expelled from social architectures, incremental rights will be sought, extra-power devalued and peace alienated. Humanity Sunday is our GPS to God and nature; it is a reminder that things could be done differently; that the God in us is ready to work in us, while we sleep; but complementarity—living with others, solidarity—working with others, and Godliness must be restored as preconditions for unity and peace! On this Humanity Sunday, let us see the God in one another, let us work for unity, so that God can perfect our union and unity.
Assignment for the Week:
Say some prayers for married couples and family life this week.