REFLECTIONS TODAY

On the question whether Jesus would allow divorce — Moses permitted the man to dismiss his wife—Jesus proclaims permanence of marriage to be God’s intent from the beginning. Moses’ concession, Jesus says, is given only “because of the hardness of your hearts” (v 5). “Hardness of heart” (Greek sklerokardia) is the refusal to listen to and follow the command of God, like the grumbling of the Israelites against God and against Moses in the desert. 

The psalmist voices out God’s call, “Oh, that today you would hear his voice: Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert. There your ancestors tested me; they tried me though they had seen my works” (Ps 95:7-9). 

Underneath the argument, Jesus points out that the questions about marriage and divorce should not be seen only in terms of what is “lawful” or what is “permitted” by Moses. The underlying root of breakup in marriage is the “hardness of heart.” 

As long as the two people who enter marriage maintain the conviction that they become “one flesh” (v 8), there is more possibility of keeping the commitment, of companionship, and intimacy as embracing the totality of life, rather than looking for ways of separation, divorce, and remarriage.

St. Paul explains the deeper meaning of “union in marriage”: it reflects the mystical union of Jesus with his bride, the Church. Hence, he declares, “Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church” (Eph 5:28-29).

Gospel • Mark 10:1-12 

Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. The Pharisees approached 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 him 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 him 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.”

Source: “366 Days with the Lord 2024,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.