Readings: Genesis 2:18-24; Psalm 128; Hebrews 2:9-11; Mark 10:2-16
Imagine Adam wondering whether any other creature God has made will be an appropriate partner for him. One by one they pass by and he names them all but it is not looking good. The cow, faithful and timid, but hardly a stimulating conversation partner in the evenings. The eagle, magnificent and deadly but fairly egocentric, keeping an eye out all the time for a good meal. The lion - now there's a beast, but too powerful, too fast, and not really the one to help Adam in the things he has been asked to do in the garden.
God knows His creature well and sees the problem. So sleep Adam, rib out, woman created. 'At last', Adam cries, 'a partner, an equal, a companion. Bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.' And they lived together in the garden happily ever after. Magari, as the Italians say. If only it were true. They lived together ever after, but not as happily as they would have hoped.
We can imagine another cry of 'At last' coming from the mouth of Adam waiting as he has been in the underworld for the champion who will set him free. Jesus is the second Adam or the new Adam, the fresh beginning, the one who restores creation, heals it of the consequences of Adam's sin, and leads God's creatures into the garden where they will live happily ever after in communion and partnership, in love.
Jesus too is bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh. It is the whole point, says the Letter to the Hebrews, from which the second reading is taken over the next few weeks. He is made lower than the angels, to be a creature of flesh and blood like us, capable of suffering and of death, living within the limitations of flesh and blood. The one who sanctifies and the ones who are sanctified are of the same stock, they are all from one. Even though he is the Son he learned to obey through suffering. Because he is the Son he could offer the single sacrifice that is the world's salvation and carry into the heavenly sanctuary the blood - the human blood - that is the world's redemption.
Jesus recalls the creation of Eve in responding to the question about marriage and divorce. It was to live happily together ever after that God created the man and the woman for each other. Jesus has come to restore that original creation.
The link with the children might seem obvious considering the context but it is still a bit puzzling. they too are bone of our bones and flesh of our flesh, the fruit of how God has arranged it that man and woman can collaborate in the continuing work of creation. But Jesus does not tell us what it is about them, what it is about the children, that makes them a good model for how we ought to receive the kingdom. Is it because they are teachable and have not yet hardened their hearts? That seems to be what is implied in the fact that we hear about it at this precise point.
Bone of our bones, flesh of our flesh, blood of our blood, tears of our tears - all men and women are called out of the same prisons, are called by the one Saviour who is our brother, are called towards the same experience of communion and partnership, of love, called to a kind of marriage with God. We adults place so many obstacles to the flourishing of that dream. Today's readings call us to experiences again the joy of 'at last' which comes in a childlike encounter with Christ. At last one like me. At last one who understands me from within. At last one with whom I want to spend all my days and all my nights. At last the fulfilment that my battered adult heart has always desired.
At last Jesus and the life he brings for all of us. At last.
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