EVANGELISATION; What Christ Taught on Marriage

 "Have you not heard that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and that he said 'This is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife, they are no longer two therefore but one flesh, so therefore what God has united, human beings should not divide"   They said to him "Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be given in cases of Divorce"   He said to them 'It was because you were so hard hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not like this from the beginning.  Now I say to you anyone who divorces his wife - I am not speaking of an illicit Marriage - and marries another, is guilty of Adultery.

Now to many of the Jews gathered there to listen to Jesus, many who might well have had a writ of divorce from their wives, his words must have been very challenging indeed.   It would have been for them a hard saying, and many would have decided to follow him no more.   And when people question the  Catholic Church on such matters, they are the ones would have walked away.  .   The translation in other Bibles  about the exception is 'unless it be for fornication'.   So there was an easier path, if your husband or wife was unfaithful you were entitled to a divorce.    But the translation I use from the Jerusalem Bible is the correct one.    'I am not speaking of an illicit marriage' in other words, the breaking up of a man and woman living in sin.     O how slow we are to understand our human nature.   If we can argue around things so that we get an answer that suits us, we are only too willing to do so.    Within the Catholic Church we recently had an outbreak of annulments.   Bishops giving these to people when there was no justification, and out of their humanity, destroying more marriages.    Indeed even among good Catholics when a son or daughter found themselves deserted, the cry went up. "OK, you can always get an annulment", and the self destruction went on.  O how slow we are to understanding our human nature.   But Christ knows, and that is why he asked us to take up our Cross and follow him.   We need to deny ourselves, if we want to be true disciples.    Bishops and Priests must teach as Christ taught, knowing they will not always be popular.   But it is better to be unpopular by teaching Christ, than be popular by disowning Him.   We know the price that is paid by the children and is it just co-incidence that immediately after this dialogue Christ welcomed the little children.

The secular state is against Marriage.   Indeed many of its laws and measures are designed to destroy the institution.   Marxists are taught that Marriage is patriarchal and an enslavement of women.   So they are ready to recognise any union, whether of two men or two women as marriage.   And we now have surrogacy, where another woman will give her womb to single person, for a price of course, so that they can become a one parent family.    The leaders do not recognise, or will not recognise, since they do not really care, that a child needs a father and a mother.  In the animal kingdoms lions, tigers, bears, monkeys, all species, recognise that when the female has been impregnated the male has a duty to look after the female and the young.   They will hunt for food for the young and protect the young, for that is the law, the natural law, that they instinctively obey.   And no matter how many pictures are drawn of male penguins mating with male penguins, there is no objective evidence anywhere that this is so.    The Creator made them male and female.   To call a man an animal because he is a sexual predator is an insult to the animal world.    Men and women have the ability to reason, yet this reason is misused for personal satisfaction, and sex is used for personal satisfaction and only personal satisfaction.    The rising suicides among the young, the prostitution of children growing up in children's homes, where there is no moral teaching but only contraceptives, the growing number of suicides among such children is alarming, but there are few who care.  One of the most wonderful things in my life is the devotion of my married siblings to their offspring.    The love between father and daughter.  The way that the sons have their duties and their relationships with the children which is quite different in many ways from the of their spouses.    Then I think of young people nearby, who do not have the joy of family outings and holidays that my sons families enjoy.    There are differences between the approach of a mother and father, and one day I hope those who are responsible for family breakup will answer  before the Court of Heaven.

In my previous article I did touch on the wonderful dedication of so many single mothers who have to work their socks off to keep their family together and my writing is in no way meant  as an insult to them.   They are the ones who were victims of men who love freedom, but have no care for responsibility.   You have loved your children, and your reward will be great in heaven.