Last week September 26 was “Daughter’s Day.”  Of course, I don’t know who decided that, or any of the other days I see celebrated on Facebook.  But it was delightful to see picture after picture of young girls and young women, all beaming, with their parents saying how proud they were of “our daughter” and “my daughter.”

I suppose we do think of our children like that, as if they are “ours” in a sense that they belong to us.  Just watch a child wait for a parent at the airport; when they see each other, the joy is so amazing that you know they belong to each other.  A lot of this belonging comes from our physical relationship; we say “my flesh and bones.”  But where else in our lives is there a sense of belonging?

The readings underscore the human reality that men and women belong to each other when they have made a commitment in marriage.  This reflects the relationship that the Scriptures show between Adam and Eve: “bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh.”  This ideal from the book of Genesis has been a model for how essential marriage is to our human existence.  We realize today that woman was created not as someone inferior to the man, but rather as someone who shares equality with man.  Mutual love assumes this.

But notice how the belonging between man and woman come about.  At some point, each must make a deliberate commitment to come to belong to each other, so powerfully that St. Paul will say that the wife’s flesh is the husband’s flesh, and vice versa.  Many cultures see this belonging as a decision that a family makes to give their daughter to a worthy man.  Even today some marriage ceremonies use the phase, “Who gives this woman away.”  But we Catholics see marriage as based in loving decision between the couple.

It is our faith and teaching that the man and woman belong to each other in God; that made with us—as unbreakable as is his love, so unbreakable should our marriage commitments be.  We know, today, that many marriages do break; we know that divorce is just about as traumatic to a person as the death of a family member.

It’s way too easy to sit in judgment on broken marriages.  That’s not the point of today’s readings.  More, our task as believers and Christians is to witness to the kind of love that Jesus shows us, and the faithfulness that was at the heart of his saving work.  Jesus, as part of his saving work, bound himself to us with a faithful love that shows that we belong to him, and he belongs to us.  He gives us a model of expansive, generous love that we are called to show in different ways in our lives. 

While only a few are our blood family, our love extends to those beyond our families by the respect, honesty, and care that we exercise with others.  While our nations and races show differences, our love calls us beyond those difference to embrace all people.  While forces around us try to divide us, our love calls us to work for unity and peace.  Jesus is not afraid to call us brothers and sisters; he calls us to live the same way. 

What gives you a sense of belonging to Christ?