Marriage and Divorce

Today's Reflections 

          

 

                 

Marriage and Divorce 

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Mt 19:3-12

³Some Pharisees approached [Jesus], and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” ⁴He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ ⁵and 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’? ⁶So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” ⁷They said to him, “Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss [her]?” ⁸He 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. ⁹I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.” ¹⁰[His] disciples said to him, “If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” ¹¹He answered, “Not all can accept [this] word, but only those to whom that is granted. ¹²Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”

Reflection:

What God has joined together, no human being must separate. Jesus shows himself against divorce in the Gospel. The original intention of God was for an indissoluble marriage. Moses provided for divorce as a concession to human weakness—because of the hardness of people’s hearts.

Now Jesus wants us to go back to the original plan of God: “What God has joined together, no human being must separate.” The phrase “except for immorality,” used in some translations, is not really an exception. The original Greek word, porneia, refers to a condition that invalidates marriage. Hence, the New American Bible translates it: “unless the marriage is unlawful.”

In the Philippines, many Catholic husbands do not indeed divorce their wives, but they add another “wife” or “wives” who are often better treated than the original and real wife. They, too, are called to return to God’s original plan for marriage.

What matters is not only indissolubility

but fidelity in marriage.