Reflection for May 24 Friday of the Seventh Week in Ordinary Time: Mark 10:1-12

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 him 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.”

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Reflection:

What if married couples decide not to divorce or separate? There would be no breakup of marriage, there would be no suffering children and there would be no hurting spouses.

Married couples who separate are only concerned with their own welfare and fleeting, false happiness. They don’t care about what will happen to their child or children, who are the main casualties when parents separate.

Beneath the opposition of Jesus to divorce is His command for couples to persevere in their marriage. HE commands us to always remember the vows of marriage whenever we are tempted to betray it or walk away from it. He commands us to accept the fact that marriage is not always a bed of roses but sometimes bed laden with thorns.

For the reason that there is no perfect marriage, there would also be thorny episodes in marriage. So the couple must stay no matter what their difficulties are. The couple must learn to adjust and sometimes bend in humility for the marriage to grow, bear fruit and succeed.

Incompatibility is not the reason why couples separate; it’s rather the lack of humility, the stubbornness to respect the sacred vows of the marriage covenant and the lack of active prayer life inside the marriage.

Just imagine if both husband and wife learns to imbibe humility.  Just imagine if there is an active presence of prayer life inside the marriage.  And just imagine if both spouses would learn to respect the sacred vows of marriage no matter the temptation that may come their way. – Marino J. Dasmarinas