What God Has Joined Together

 (Note:  Looks like yesterday's slice is what you will receive today; maybe this one too.  Still working on the solution.)

 Mark 10: 1-12

Teaching About Divorce

10 And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.

² And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³ He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” ⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, ⁸ and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹ What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

¹⁰ And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, ¹² and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

It is heartening to read that the rash of marriages postponed by COVID-19 is keeping reception venues hopping, a testimony to the innate need for a public celebration of a couple's love. The real essence of a wedding, however, is the exchange of the wedding vows and commitment to each other before God.  It is a sacred thing, and in the Catholic Faith, a Sacrament more than just a ceremony. It's  the beginning of a long road with many unforeseen twists, turns and challenges as well as joys. Without the conscious presence of God and the need for and support of his grace, it is very hard to accomplish; hence the too-large number of divorces.  Jesus, evidently from this passage, is not a fan of divorce, to say the least.  Let us all then pray for married couples that they invite God daily into their relationship and ask for him to bless and guide them in their desire and attempts to live a happy, faith-filled and life- lasting marriage.

Bro. Rene