Genesis 2:18-24 / Hebrews 2:9-11 / Mark 10:2-16
When life gets a bit cloudy and foggy, or even murky, then we certainly need to get clarity.
And to get clarity, it is necessary to go back to basics. Going back to basics will certainly help us see the simplicity of things as well as a simplicity of life.
There is this cute little poem about simplicity and it goes like this: Read with me A,B,C. Count with me 1, 2, 3. Sing with me Do Re Mi.
Well, that is as simple as things can be, and that is also the foundations of the learning process, be it reading or writing or counting or singing.
So, going back to basics is going back to the beginning and understanding the primary objectives and asking basic questions like why, where, when, who and how.
So, the complexity of life may not seem so complicated when we are prepared to go back to basics and to go back to the beginning.
Similarly, the difficult questions of life can be simplified when we go back to basics.
In the gospel, some Pharisees approached Jesus and asked Him a rather tricky question, and that is whether it is against the law to divorce.
It was a tricky and complicated question, but Jesus turned it around and went back to the beginnings and to basics.
From the beginning of creation, God made male and female, and marriage was a Divine institution, so much so that what God has united, man must not divide.
So, in marriage, it is God who binds the couple with His love, and their love for each other deepens the love of God in them.
No doubt, marriage is not without challenges and difficulties, and things do get a bit rough.
So, when marriage get a bit cloudy and foggy and murky, then it is necessary to go back to basics and go back to the beginning.
Marriage began with love and it is founded on love, and that love has to be nurtured and deepened so that it can bear fruit in procreation and witnessing to God's love.
And since marriage is also a Divine institution, then God's help must be invoked and prayed for.
So, it is fundamentally necessary, for married couples, and especially when they are Christians, to pray for God's help and blessings and protection for their marriage.
And that is not just for marriage, but for the Christian life as well.
We are created by God, and in order to live life according to God's will, then we must invoke and pray for God's help and blessings and protection.
As we begin the month of October, we are reminded that October is a month dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary.
It is a month to go back to the basics of the spiritual life and to renew our prayer life.
And if our prayer life has gone a bit cloudy and foggy and murky, then we need to go back to the basics of prayer life with the simplicity of the prayer of the Rosary.
The Rosary is such an effective prayer because Mother Mary prays with us in the Rosary.
In fact she calls out to us to pray the Rosary with her.
So, if the poem of simplicity goes with “Read with me A, B, C, count with me 1, 2, 3, and sing with me Do Re Mi, then we can also add this: Pray with Mary, pray the Rosary.
Let us go back to the beginning, let us go back to the basics, and let us be like little simple children.
Yes, let us be like little simple children who will listen to their Mother in her call to prayer.
It is with simple humble prayers that marriages will be strengthened, and God will pour out His blessings and protection on His children.