Such a beautiful verse in today’s Gospel (MK 10:7-8) for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one. In this sacrament of matrimony, the married couple vow for the unity of each other and they also bear witness to Christ’s union with His Church. It is therefore not so much a sacrament that they receive, but what they become.
Husband and wife are therefore called to mirror Christ in Holy Matrimony. They are called to give of themselves freely, totally, faithfully and fruitfully. According to the Lord’s teaching, the matrimonial union is indissoluble (Mt 19:4-6, Mk 10:7-9), just as Christ never withdraws His love from us in spite of our failings.
In CCC 1605, the Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been “in the beginning”: “So that they are no longer two, but one flesh.”
Why then, Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss the wife? Jesus says, “Because of the hardness of your heart…”
When sins subtly enter into the lives of the couple, their lives will draw away from God and the start of feeling resentment, disappointment, unhappiness… will seep in.
When we start to think of I, instead of we, and my need is of priority than the family’s, then we have to ask ourselves, is my heart being hardened…
By Sharlyn Neo