There are values around us that we should respect and protect. If we don’t protect them, they will be destroyed, so let’s protect nature, clean air, the environment… The older and more advanced humanity is, the more relevant and necessary these questions are. In today’s Gospel, Jesus appears as the protector of marriage. His words are absolutely clear and unequivocal: Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. And so they are no longer two, but one body. So what God has joined together, let no man separate! The Pharisees referred to the law of Moses, in which a wife can be divorced.
But Jesus argues that Moses gave them this law because of the hardness of their hearts. Men very often simply dismissed their wives, therefore the law required them to issue a certificate of dismissal, which made every such case legally verifiable. However, we see that the situation is not changing and even today many religious people talk about divorce quite seriously and consider it a part of life. They defend themselves with a judgment in the name of the Republic, civil law, common sense, happiness, and the dignity of a person… Many imagine divorce as a change of shirt, which puts them in league with the Pharisees and asks Jesus: Is it permissible to divorce a marriage?
Even today, as two thousand years ago, Jesus acts as the supreme Lawgiver and uncompromisingly reminds us that God created man as male and female and declared that the two will be one flesh that no one can divide. If, after all, someone wanted to divide this body, he sins against God and man and destroys his temporal and eternal happiness. However, many do not want to understand Jesus’ words, which is why we witness the breakup of dozens of marriages every day. However, Jesus still says: What God has joined together, let no man put asunder! God gave us this hard and unexceptional law to protect ourselves. After all, let’s just imagine if the marriage was dissolvable, what uncertainty would reign in people? When my face wrinkles, some accident happens, and I remain bedridden or grow old, the other person can leave me at any time, find someone else, and live with me only as long as I suit him. Say for yourself, wouldn’t that be terrible and tragic? But since God has declared marriage indissoluble, such a thing cannot happen. Spouses should be together in good times and bad, in happiness and misfortune, in health and sickness…
This is how they voluntarily promise each other before God and people. And there is one more very important fact that speaks for the indissolubility of marriage. Jesus ends this argument with the Pharisees by blessing the children, taking them in his arms, and hugging them. By this, he wants to say that children suffer the most when marriages break up. A question may come to mind at this moment: Why do marriages break up? Jesus also answers her in today’s Gospel: Because of the hardness of the heart. It is harshness towards God, who gave men the law of indissolubility in defense of their good. It is harshness towards the partner, who may cry days and nights and defend in every possible way against the separation. Not only that, but it is harsh towards children who immediately after divorce become “half-orphans”, although they have a loving father and mother and one of them does not care for them.
But someone could defend themselves by saying: OK, but what if the spouses start hating each other? Look, this should not happen to a Christian, who is supposed to love even his enemies, and especially in the family. Christ tells us to forgive. And who to forgive, if not your closest neighbor, husband, or wife? So Jesus does not even allow this alternative, that the two start to hate each other. Let’s look now at our family, at my family. How is it with us at home? We may not be divorcing publicly, but what does it look like in my heart? Do we belong to each other and the children completely and honestly? Jesus’ words also apply to us: What God has joined together, let no man put asunder! The father of three used to go home after work in a “good mood”. He and his co-workers often sat for a drink, and when he came home, he was crude and vulgar. The wife typically had to leave with the children to live with her sister, who was married in the same city.
Relatives were worried about this situation and advised her to get a divorce. Some claimed that in such cases, the Church also allows divorce to a certain extent. This woman, although she suffered a lot, appealed to the fact that before the altar she promised to be faithful to her husband in good and bad, and therefore she must not leave him. She added: I have to pray for him even more. Maybe you don’t have these problems in your marriage, but many families among us have them and are thinking about divorce. Let us pray for them to persevere in faithfulness and mutual love. Let’s pray that spouses will be able to forgive each other and that they will solve all problems by looking at the crucified Christ. And don’t forget, dear husbands and parents, that your marriage will be truly happy if you let Jesus into it and allow him to walk with you on the path of life. Because only he is the true protector of marriage and family.
Hello. And Bye.