THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN AND WOMAN

BLESSED JORDAN OF SAXONY OP

Gen 2:18-25; Ps 128:1-5; Mk 7:24-30

He made them Male and Female

The sacred author of Genesis presents to us the separation of the sexes. The reason for God’s separation of the sexes is the need for companionship as equals. “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him a helpmate.’ So, from the soil, the Lord God fashioned all the wild beasts and all the birds of heaven. These he brought to the man to see what he would call them; each one was to bear the name the man would give it.” As we mentioned yesterday, this second account of creation presents God as personally involved with the well-being of Adam he made. He provided suitable food for the nourishment of the life he gave him by planting the Garden of Eden, containing fruit trees in abundance. He used the symbol of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil to forewarn him against conceiving and doing anything outside the natural goods he has provided for his upkeep and well-being. In the present passage, Yahweh provides what will keep Adam's mind and heart engaged. In other words, he educated Adam's mind and guided his heart to love more exalted things. By letting man know and name each animal, he guided him to take control and dominion of the material creation.

When Adam knew the whole material universe and cherished it, God turned his attention to his inner territory unknown to him. He needed to know himself as a constitutive part of the material universe, as one of the animals with rational character and disposition. Thus, God separated the sexes in Adam to help the male and female know each other in their material composition and orientation in such a way as to make them understand their transcendental vocation or orientation. In the separation of the sexes, God divided the consciousness, and the material supports into complementary parts so that each sees the other as still part of the self. “This at last is bone from my bones, and flesh from my flesh! This is to be called woman, for this was taken from man.’” Thus, the union of marriage is for the knowledge of the human persons in their personal and material compositions. For this reason, the sacred author adds: “This is why a man leaves his father and mother and joins himself to his wife, and they become one body.” There is a formal union in every knowledge, but a marriage union is carnal in addition. Because the union is natural, it orders them to ultimate union with the Word of God. The spouses beholding each other before God help each other to draw closer to God. Hence, guilt or shame was excluded in their view of each other because nothing unnatural was admitted to their union, which orders them to the Eternal Word.      

The access spouses have to their bodies does not limit their access to the Eternal Word but enriches their terrestrial experience and opens them to God in their self-transcendence. Marriage union does not inhibit our access to God but makes each spouse a pathway to God for the other. Only a lack of faith inhibits our access to God’s grace and presence. In the gospel, the gentile woman got what she asked of the Lord because she implored by faith. “And he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go home happy: the devil has gone out of your daughter.’ So, she went off to her home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.” The spouses must live their marriage union in the presence of God; they must proceed by faith to gain access and remain in the presence of the Lord to keep their marriage and families safe from the devil. The Psalm testifies to this: “Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the heart of your house; your children like shoots of the olive, around your table. Indeed, thus shall be blessed the man who fears the Lord.”

We celebrate the Blessed Jordan of Saxony, who found complete fulfilment in his religious vocation and union with God. Because God made the human person to house the Eternal Word of God, our union with him in religious vows satisfies the natural desire for a human spouse, which God created as a means to this higher union with the Word. He was born at Burgberg, Westphalia, around the year 1185. He was attracted to the Dominican Order while studying in Paris by Blessed Reginald of Orleans. He was made the Master of the Order after Dominic. He ministered to his brothers and sisters for fifteen years through his preaching, letters, edition of the Constitutions, frequent visitations, and exemplary life. His love for Mother Mary made him decree the inclusion of Salve Regina in the Compline. He was shipwrecked and drowned on February 13, 1237.   

Let us pray: O God, who in your kindness called your servant blessed Jordan of Saxony to the following of Christ, grant, we pray, through his intercession, that, denying ourselves, we may hold fast to you with all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.