The gospel of today’s Mass shows us Jesus teaching the multitudes that had come from all the neighboring towns. Among the simple people who had come to listen eagerly to the Word of God, there are some Pharisees with twisted intentions. They want to confront Christ with the law of Moses. They ask if it is lawful for a man to repudiate his wife. “What did Moses command you?” asks Jesus. “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away” (Mark 10:3-4).
Jesus Christ, the Messiah and the Son of God, knew the law perfectly well. Moses had allowed divorce because of the “hardness of the heart” of the chosen people.
The law of Moses was a measure to protect the dignity of women. At that time and in that culture women were often treated as little better than slaves, with very few rights. Through the certificate of dismissal, at least the woman recovered her freedom. The Mosaic law was, thus, a great social advancement in that context.
But Jesus wanted to restore marriage to its pristine dignity, just as God had designed.
“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. So they are no longer two but one. What, therefore, God has joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mark 10:6-9).
This teaching seemed difficult to his listeners. But Christ reaffirmed it a little later. “Whoever divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery” (Mark 10:11-12).
Jesus Christ, therefore, teaches how God established the unity and indissolubility of marriage. Saint John Chrysostom summarized this teaching, thus: marriage is one with one, and forever.
Marriage is not simply a private contract. It cannot be broken by the mere will of the spouses. There can be no human reasoning, no matter how convincing it may sound, which can justify divorce, because divorce is contrary to natural law and to the law of God.
Jesus Christ gave that teaching against divorce in a period of history when public opinion and social pressure were adverse to it. Nowadays, when the dignity of marriage and its essential properties of unity and indissolubility are under attack, Christians should have the courage to defend and protect it.
Let us pray frequently for the stability of families, beginning with our own. Within our families, let us try to be elements of union by being helpful, cheerful and thoughtful.
And for spouses, learn to love your partner as he or she is, even with his or her defects and limitations, which all of us can have. Family life and marriage is a wonderful field in which to grow and practice that Christian charity, which will lead to the strengthening of families.