Some Pharisees approached him, 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, no human being must 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."
(His) disciples said to him, "If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry." He answered, "Not all can accept (this) word, but only those to whom that is granted. Some 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."
The Word in other words
This is how my professor at the seminary explained the sacramental bond of marriage to us. He said: A man, his mother, and his girlfriend are in a boat on a lake. They have an accident. The boat sinks and they are all in the water. Only the knows how to swim. He can only save one person at a time. Whom does he save first? In this instance, the bond between mother and child is stronger than the bond between boyfriend and girlfriend. So he is morally obligated to save his mother first.
Imagine now a man, his mother, and his wife. The same thing happens. However, this time the man is morally obligated to save his wife first because the bond between the husband and wife is stronger than the bond between the mother and child.
This is why the Church admonished people not to take the sacrament of marriage lightly. Choose your partner wisely and prayerfully. My sociology professor in college used to tell us this quotation: When going to war, pray twice. When getting married, pray a million times. Married life is not an easy path to take. It involves a lot of patience, understanding, and sacrifice. But the underlying force in all of these must be love. Without love, no marriage stands a chance of succeeding. A marriage blessed by God through the sacrament of marriage is a union that not only relies on the determination of the couple to make it succeed but also has the special grace from above which definitely makes it stronger.
Let us pray for all married couples that they may continue to love each other that they may always seek the counsel of God and ask for His blessing as they strive to be faithful to the vows they shared on their wedding day.
- Fr. Jose Luis "Chito" Lorenzo, SVD (Japan)
