One flesh Gn 2:18-24; Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5, 6; Heb 2:9-11; Mk 10:2-16 Some teachings of the church pose a sharp challenge for us today. Whenever I preach in a parish when today’s Gospel forbidding divorce and remarriage is read, I am conscious that there are men and women present who themselves have suffered through the conflict and sadness of a divorce. How do they feel as they hear these words of Jesus? How can we understand this teaching of Jesus and of the church in a pastoral and faithful way at a time and in a culture where the pressures on marriage are enormous? Although the precise number is debated, it is estimated that between 30 and 40 percent of first marriages in our country end in divorce. The readings for this Sunday can help put Jesus’ teaching in its proper perspective. In the Gospel selection from Mark, some Pharisee opponents of Jesus approach to test him asking, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” Jesus, like his opponents, was aware that the Jewish law allowed divorce under certain circumstances, but those circumstances were debated. His opponents knew that Jesus taught there was no rationale for divorce and so they wanted to test or embarrass him about this. Jesus’ answer goes to a whole different level than that of his opponents. Rather than become embroiled in a legal argument, Jesus recalls the fundamental spirit that underlies marriage: “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.” Jesus, in effect, reminds his opponents that the deepest desire of the human heart is to embrace another in love, to be in communion with another human being. This was the intent of God’s creative work. The first reading this Sunday is the passage from Genesis that Jesus cites. In the artful story of creation found in the second chapter of Genesis, God is portrayed as concerned that the human he created is lonely and has “no suitable partner.” He takes a portion of the “man” and creates a “woman,” one who is a suitable “partner.” The man exclaims, she is “bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” That man and woman “cling” to each other and become “one flesh” is the profound meaning of marriage presented in the Scriptures. Christian marriage embodies this deep desire of the human heart to be driven by love, to be in communion with another human being, to participate in the very creative work of God. This is why the Letter to the Ephesians (5:21-33) compares the relationship of husband and wife in marriage to the profound bond of love between Christ and the church. The assumptions of Ephesians about the respective roles of husband and wife may be culturally conditioned (expecting the wife to be subordinate to her husband) but the letter’s intuition about the exemplary love between spouses as comparable to Christ’s love for the church is timeless. Ephesians, too, appeals to God’s intent that man and woman become one flesh. Although our human frailty and the complex circumstances of life today may batter and even break this bond of love, most couples begin their marriage longing for the kind of deep and lasting love Jesus describes. Not everyone forges pre-nuptial agreements based on the expectation that their marriage is likely to fail. The church today struggles with how to respond in a Christ-like way to the plight of those who are divorced yet desire an authentic Christian life. Pope Francis, at the cost of much criticism, has urged the pastors of the church to accompany the divorced with compassion on their challenging spiritual journey. At the same time, the vision of marriage lifted up by Jesus and our tradition reminds us of the most profound reality of our faith — the God of love calls each of us, as frail as we are, to a life of faithful love.
About the Author Donald Senior was president emeritus, chancellor and professor of New Testament studies at Catholic Theological Union, 5401 S. Cornell Ave., until his death on Nov. 8, 2022.