Marriage

In today's Gospel (Matthew 19:3-12), our Lord is asked a question on a hot button topic.

Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying,
"Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife
for any cause whatever?"

He said in reply,
"Have you not read that from the beginning
the Creator made them male and female and said,
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.
Therefore, what God has joined together,
man must not separate."

They said to him, "Then why did Moses command
that the man give the woman a bill of divorce
and dismiss her?"

He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts
Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,
but from the beginning it was not so.
I say to you, whoever divorces his wife
(unless the marriage is unlawful)
and marries another commits adultery."

The Pharisees' questions are about divorce, but our Lord's response is first and foremost about the wonderful unity of marriage.

Pope Benedict XVI spoke similarly in a recent television interview when confronted with a controversial marriage question:

"Christianity, Catholicism, isn't a collection of prohibitions: it's a positive option. It's very important that we look at it again because this idea has almost completely disappeared today. We've heard so much about what is not allowed that now it's time to say: we have a positive idea to offer, that man and woman are made for each other, that the scale of sexuality, eros, agape, indicates the level of love and it's in this way that marriage develops, first of all, as a joyful and blessing-filled encounter between a man and a woman, and then the family, that guarantees continuity among generations and through which generations are reconciled to each other and even cultures can meet."

We must be compassionate with people who are divorced and we need to reach out and help those in troubled marriages, but most of all we must uphold the truth of marriage - that great and wonderful gift from God himself.