MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE

Mark 10:1-12

There is a story of a young couple who planned to go for their honeymoon. Weeks before the trip, the couple started to make a list of the things they needed to bring along and the things to be done before leaving to make sure they won’t miss anything. On the day of the trip, they boarded the plane confident that everything was accounted for. When they were already in their seats the woman felt uncomfortable and suddenly said: “We have forgotten something!” The man confidently replied: “No, it is impossible. We have prepared everything weeks before this trip. I even made a list of them.”  But the woman insisted they have forgotten something very important. So the man said: “Okay, what is it?” the woman replied: “We have forgotten to get married!” This couple was so preoccupied with so many things that they forgot the most important thing: God’s blessing on their marriage.

In today’s gospel, the Pharisees confront Jesus about the Mosaic Law on marriage and divorce. And of course Jesus knows the spirit of this law. He said that Moses had permitted them to get divorce because of the hardness of their hearts. He says that it is God’s intention that marriage be a sacred and binding union. Jesus makes His point clear. He takes us back to the beginning of creation and God’s plan for the human race. He shows the ideal is found in the unbreakable union of Adam and Eve. God created them for each other and they were to be the pattern and symbol for all who were to come. Likewise, Jesus sets high the ideal for those who sacrifice marriage and freely choose a single state of life for the sake of the Kingdom. When Jesus said that husband and wife are to be “one flesh” in marriage, he intended it to mean more than a partnership in establishing a family or intimate companionship between two individuals. It involves a third party – God, who joins with a husband and wife when they become “one flesh.” What is common to both marriage and consecrated celibacy is that they are all calls from God to live a consecrated life. These calls make of us sharers in God’s life. We belong not only to ourselves or to each other in marriage but also and mostly to God. That is why Paul the Apostle used marriage as an analogy for Christ and the church, his bride (Ephes. 5:31).  God wants an unbreakable union between himself and his people.  And this is only possible through the gift and working of his Holy Spirit who purifies us and makes us one in Christ. We are called to be one with God in a union so intimate and a bond so strong that nothing can separate us or destroy us. Our lives are not our own, but they belong to God.  He gives the grace and power to those who seek to follow his way of holiness in their state of life.