Marriage is a Life Sentence
27th Sunday Ordinary Time
Jesus told them,”Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses wrote you this commandment on divorce. But 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 flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.”
Mk 10:2-16
Let me start with two instances of love common nowadays: adolescent love and married love.
Some teenagers too easily get into romantic relationships. Too often, too early and too unaware they say “I love you”. When some disagreement comes they break up also too easily. Hurt, they cannot forgive and would prefer instead to look for another to love. They say they do not understand love.
Couples also quarrel sometimes. But they do not sulk instead they talk things over. If one is at fault he/she asks forgiveness. If one is faulted he/she gives forgiveness. Strangely enough every quarrel makes their bonds stronger so long as it ends in reconciliation. Love is perfected in suffering Hebrews 2:9-11.
In the gospel today Jesus clearly tells us that God is against divorce Mark 10: 9. But in Congress the lawmakers have introduced the Divorce Bill. They say marriage does not work anymore. Songs that immortalize long and lasting love are at best fictitious. People who were madly in love in their younger years cannot anymore live together even after having lovely kids. There is really no forever. That is so true… that is if love is just between a man and a woman. If love depends only on humans, love would end.
That is the reason why catholic marriages unlike civil ones are done in churches to invite into the lives of the groom and his bride a third person who is not even in the list of their invited guests. That person is none other than Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus is invited into marriage so that He would make the love between couples last a lifetime and even beyond.
When man betrayed God with sins, He nevertheless still forgave him by dying on the cross in his stead. God’s love is forever because it is first of all forgiving. If woman and man love like God then divorce is unnecessary.
Allow me to end with one last example of love.
There were two kids sitting in a sofa, brothers ages 8 and 4. The elder one was playing with a tablet. The younger one wanted to play too with the gadget but his brother won’t let him. When the younger one insisted the elder one hit him and he cried. The elder one tried to ignore his sibling. But the crying won’t stop, so the elder one hugged his brother. At that moment the young one stopped crying and suddenly was laughing. Children can easily make up because they do not keep grudges. No wonder Jesus put them up for us as an example
Disclaimer: This section of the website is a personal creative writing of the author and does not necessarily reflect the official views, opinion, or policies of the Salesians of Don Bosco – Philippines South Province. For concerns on the content, style, and grammar of this piece, please contact us.
