Divorce

In today’s Gospel (Mk. 10:1-12), our Lord speaks strongly against divorce.

“From the beginning of creation, `God made them male and female.'

”’For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh.

“What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder."

And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter.

And he said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."

Some Christians (and even some ministers of the Gospel) shy away from this teaching.

Other Christians pound people over the head with it.

We need to be compassionate to people in difficult circumstances.

We need to show God's love to people who have made bad choices (without our forgetting our obligations to truth and justice).

All of us – no matter where we may be in life or what we have done – need to do the best we can with what we have and where we are.

We are all sinners (miserere mei, Domine): needing the grace of Christ, striving to grow in that grace and to be channels of that grace.

But we must never obscure the truth.

Watering down ideals helps no one.

We all fall short of perfection, yet in Christ's love and grace and kindness we still strive to help each other toward the perfection to which he calls us.