Our first reading for this Sunday is from Genesis 2:18-24 and it may be familiar to some of you, in that this reading is often used for weddings. The first human, known as Adam, was all alone and was happy when God created the second human, Eve. His response was one of joy and he said “This one, at last….”
I was almost thirty when I married my wife Maureen and thinking back on that, I was ready for a wife as well. Our marriage had lasted almost thirty years when Maureen died from the effects of melanoma.
Losing a spouse to death is never easy. Some lose their spouse through divorce and that too is not easy for either of the parties.
Our Psalm response for today is “May the Lord bless us all the days of our lives.” If you are married, this Psalm might be a great source of daily prayer and encouragement. Pray it daily as a family. There was a slogan years ago that said the family that prays together, stays together. Family life can be hard with all the many demands on the spouses and the children. Taking some time to pray together may help to ease some of the problems and anxiety.
Finally, in our Gospel from Mark 10, we see Jesus’ teaching on divorce. Jesus says “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.”
When a baptized Catholic is married in the church in the sacrament of matrimony, they are entering into a lifelong union with their spouse. Here is a question that the Priest asks them “Are you prepared, as you follow the path of Marriage, to love and honor each other for as long as you both shall live?” The bridegroom and the bride reply “I am.” After this they give their consent by each saying that they promise to be faithful to their spouse, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love and to honor their spouse all the days of their life.
The words of consent create the sacred bond that no human being must separate. 2,000 years later, our world and our society have changed in so many ways. Couples and families and children have so many pressures to deal with and unfortunately marriages do end for various reasons. Pope Francis encourages us to heal the wounded, and divorced persons are certainly wounded and in need of healing. If you are
divorced and need help and healing, we encourage you to meet with one of our priests or deacons.