Friday, May 25, 2018

Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(James 5:9-12; Mark 10:1-12)

Before epoxy glues were sold commercially, scientists would demonstrate their strength to students.  They took two pieces of chain with plugs at the end and fastened them together with the epoxy.  Then they asked two husky boys to pull on either side of the chain.  Meanwhile, they put a safety cord connecting both sides in case the chain should give.  Of course, the boys could not pull the cemented chains apart.  The epoxy glue held the two sides together as if they were always one.  In today’s gospel Jesus is saying that marriage has a comparable solidity.

The permanence of marriage evidently has always been at issue.  When Moses saw the problem of troubled marriages, he wrote a provision for divorce into the Law.  However, Jesus will not accept Moses’ allowance as the Creator’s intention.  He forbids divorce as against the design of matrimony.  He uses strong language to defend his position.  Those who divorce to marry another person commit adultery.

Divorce continues to plague society and, therefore, the Church.  Recently some bishops have tried to allow for some exceptions to Jesus’ rule.  However, Pope Francis has concluded that Jesus’ prohibition remains intact.  True, he has facilitated matrimonial annulments.  But in line with the synod called to consider the question, Francis supports the gospel tradition.

Friday, May 20, 2016

Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(James 5:9-12; Mark 10:1-12)

One of Jesus’ more radical notions is given in today’s gospel.  His insistence that man and woman form an inseparable union in marriage conflicts not only with Mosaic law but with social convention of time immemorial.  It condemns divorce out of a concern for the weak, usually the woman and often the children of a family.

Today people want to transcend the problems of divorce with court-ordered child support and equal pay for women.  As just as these measures seem, they cannot replace adherence to Jesus’ call for marital fidelity.  Indeed, they beg the question.  One-parent families lack the social integration which children need to grow in virtue.  A man and a woman sharing love provide much more than economic security to their offspring.  They afford the family a palpable model of how God works in the Trinity.

The Church bravely stands for the family as the basic unit in society.  It does so not to hold on to a tradition of the past but to give hope for a more humane future.  Only through stable families will we create a society founded on love’s concern for the good of the vulnerable.

Friday, May 24, 2013

Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time

(Sirach 6:5-17; Mark 10:1-12)

In a recent issue of First Things editor R.R. Reno comments on the nature of marriage as holding together two people of enormous differences.  In most cases at least a man and a woman are raised with different visions of life handed down by their parents.  They also respond emotionally to situations in different ways because of their distinct hormonal compositions.  Physical difference may pique some curiosity, but after a while there is less to share than among people of the same sex.  And yet the couple because of the sheer power of sexuality can form a loving union to nurture a family.  To support marital relationships, Jesus upholds a necessary injunction in today’s gospel.

Jesus is forced to comment on the perennially troublesome question of divorce.  Moses seems to make allowances for it, but the issue is the proper interpretation of Moses.  Should divorce be allowed for any pretext like the currently popular complaint of incompatibility?  Or should divorce be limited only in the case of an extreme irregularity like, for example, someone attempting marriage without the capacity for sexual intimacy?  Jesus knows that married couples need a strict law to support their efforts to overcome all the differences in a marital relationship. 

Traditional marriage is under assault from those who would dissolve it for any difficulty and, more recently, those who consider its purpose only to provide cover for sexual intimacy whatever the gender of the partners.  The condition of future generations is at stake, but the populace seems bent on ignoring Jesus along with the wisdom of the ages.