Let no man separate what God has joined

Listening to the Spirit

Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful. And kindle in them the fire of your love. send forth your Spirit and they shall be created. And you will renew the face of the earth.

Lord, by the light of the Holy Spirit you have taught the hearts of your faithful. In the same Spirit help us to relish what is right and always rejoice in your consolation.

We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Listening to the Word

Mk 10:2-16

The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. 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.” In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” Then he embraced them and blessed them, placing his hands on them.

Reflection

We, who are invited to become disciples, are listening to Jesus' teaching which is unfolding around the vision of God's Kingdom, a project in which God is the source of life and love for the world.

God is Love therefore his gift for us cannot but be love with no shortcoming, no discounts. Love is related to life as it is made explicit in the expression: “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. As children, we recognize and feel this relationship with God based on love. Our vision of faith gives shape to our relationships with one another: love and service are the distinguishing marks of this relationship. Having experienced the love of God in Christ Jesus, we make an effort to be good to one another. God neither grows tired of offering his love to his children nor withdraws his benevolence towards us. He is not capricious; His love is steadfast; as our dad, He wants to give us, his children, the best. God's desire for us is that we may choose love if we mean to follow Jesus; it must be clear that if we allow Jesus to be with us in our conversation we must listen carefully to him who has words of life and truth. He is the way to the Father.

Well, today's Jesus teaching is very important: "Let no man separate what God has joined". We learn that married life has been willed by God; it is not a work of human construct. Its roots are in God's love. The family, composed of parents and children, is sacred.

The answer of Jesus to the Pharisees, whether it is licit for a man to divorce his wife, brings us to see the relationship of a married couple within a divine perspective: "What God has joined let no man separate"; thus Jesus reminds us of a project of love that is meant to subsist having its source in God himself.

The project to form a family is a commitment, the opposite of a bet or gambling. Love is a process that sustains and nurtures life. Children are relying on the steadfastness and continuity of their parents' love. In God's wisdom, there is no provision for a broken family.

Alas
I blessed the mortal remains of Carlo; he was around forty when he died. Still on the wall is the frame of him, a young man wearing a toga for his college graduation. So many dreams... Carlo's world collapsed when a decade earlier he separated from his wife. Life, for him, stopped having sense...once a decent house and now a building in ruins.

Yes, God is love and He wants for us the best, however, when our self-sufficiency does not allow us to raise our gaze to Him we even grow tired of loving the person to whom we promised to dedicate our lives. It's a tragedy, a disaster, a defeat! Madness can totally blind us, making us capable of ruining our family due to our poor choices. Yet at our birthday celebrations, we often sing a song that is the denial of what we are being taught by the Lord: "Please release me, let me go for I don't love you anymore!" How can we become so deaf and blind? I feel so sad for Carlo and his family likewise for the many who find themselves in the same shoes. Even this reflection intends to be a way for us to care.

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