GOSPEL POWER l AUGUST 13, 2021

19th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mt 19:3-12  

3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, and to test him they asked, “Is it  lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?” 4 He answered,  “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning  ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall  leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two  shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 7 They  said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of  dismissal and to divorce her?” 8 He said to them, “It was because you  were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives,  but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever  divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits  adultery.” 10His disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his  wife, it is better not to marry.” 11But he said to them, “Not everyone can  accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. 12For there  are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who  have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have  made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let  anyone accept this who can.” 

 In replying to the Pharisees’ testing, Jesus clarifies that  the union of husband and wife is directly governed by  the Creator’s intention, which is above any human decree.  This irrevocable divine intention goes back to the beginning of time,  before any human law came to be promulgated. Unity is God’s will for  human couples. And when God wills, God also empowers and sustains  those who are willing to obey. Moses’ bill of divorce is no more than  the sad compromise by a leader who feels helpless in the face of the  hardness of people’s hearts. But Jesus himself is unrelenting in his  no-divorce stand, not only because of the devastating consequences  of divorce in terms of broken lives and wounded relationships, but  because he knows that nothing will be impossible for God and for  couples who are willing to assume the necessary sacrifice of staying  united.  Lord Jesus, we pray that married couples may seek the solution to their  differences, not in terminating their union, but in growing together in faith and willingness to sacrifice. Amen.