Reading
Matthew 19:3-12
3 Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
7 “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?”
8 Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. 9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
10 The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.”
11 Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
Comment
The issue with which the Pharisees seek to test Jesus was particularly thorny in his time. There were in fact two great rabbinic schools, one rather lax, it would have questioned the authority of Jesus as a teacher of morals and provided for the possibility of divorce even for trivial reasons, for example, if the wife did not cook well or if the husband fell in love with another woman; in this sense, the expression "to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" (v. 3) should be understood; the other school, rigorist, enjoyed less popularity and would have exposed Jesus to much criticism, perhaps even attracting Herod's hatred to him.
Jesus goes beyond the interpretation of the Mosaic law, going back to the beginning of creation and to what is stated in the book of Genesis. He, first of all, highlights the complementarity of the man with woman, defining her vocation to "become one flesh". This union is brought about by God himself and in this consists his own sacredness. The law of repudiation established by God through Moses is therefore a concession made by God to Israel for its hardness of heart. Jesus restricts its scope of applicability to the sole area of fornication, or adultery. In this case, in fact, that union is broken by adultery itself.
Jesus does not directly answer the question of whether it is lawful to give his wife "the act of divorce", which according to the Mosaic law was a protection for the woman, certifying that she was not an adulteress and preserving her from death sentence. According to Jesus' reasoning, a man who marries a woman who has been repudiated for any cause other than adultery commits adultery himself, since that woman remains the wife of another man.
Faced with a perspective such as that outlined in this passage from the Gospel of Matthew, the disciples recognize that perhaps it would be better not to marry, rather than risk a union with a woman faithful but in a situation of marital unhappiness. Without diminishing the high value of marriage, which is indeed protected by the words of Jesus against an "easy divorce", he affirms that there are men called by God himself to a total consecration for the kingdom of heaven. Such men anticipate on earth that condition which will be proper to the risen and which makes them similar to angels, who "neither marry nor be given in marriage" (Lk 20:34-36). But since it is a particular call by God, it is clear that it cannot be imposed with an "obligation of celibacy" for the exercise of the apostolic ministry or with the exaltation of chastity to the detriment of the vocation of marriage.
The apostle Paul, who had chosen celibacy for himself, praises its property of making people more free for the work of evangelization: "a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world—how he can please his wife— and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord’s affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit" (1 Cor 7:33). However, Paul himself offers us a wonderful page on marriage, understood as the union between Christ and his church: "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Eph 5:25). And in the letter to Timothy the apostle of the Gentiles foresees that deacons, priests and bishops (whose terms are often used in an "interchangeable" way and not with a hierarchical connotation) can be married, provided they are "temperate, self-controlled, respectable"(1 Tim 3:2). Paul recognizes the right to take a wife, sister in faith, as do the other apostles and brothers of the Lord and Peter (1 Cor 9:5).
Each of us, for Paul, has his own gift from God (1 Cor 7:7). And since both gifts, celibacy, and marriage, come from God, both must be accepted by a man with freedom and a sense of responsibility. Freed from the law, we are called to exercise charity in the integral gift of ourselves, faithful to our heavenly Spouse.
Prayer
Grant us, o Lord, to recognize your gift for us and to make good use of it, living in holiness and justice, not as servants under the law, but as believers united to you in a spousal bond. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
