Beloved brothers and sisters,
Is divorce lawful? According to the Bible, God does not permit divorce. The sacred texts for our Sunday mass, especially those from Gen 2: 18-24 and Mk 10: 2-12, point to marriage, the holy union between a man and a woman, as an icon of the bond between Christ and his mystical body, the Church. Christ institutes the sacrament of marriage, and part of its essential composition is unity and indissolubility because God is one and stable. Consequently, as a sacred bond, it cannot be dissolved. In other words, no human can dissolve a validly contracted marriage: "Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate."
Pope John Paul II stresses the need for the church to continue to affirm the unity and permanence components of marriage in his Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, 22: "It is a fundamentals duty of the church to reaffirm strongly... the doctrine of indissolubility of marriage. To all those who, in our times, consider it too difficult, or indeed impossible, to be bound to one person for the whole of life, and to those caught up in a culture that rejects the indissolubility of marriage and openly mocks the commitment of spouses to fidelity, it is necessary to reconfirm the good news of the definitive of that conjugal love that has in Christ the foundation and strength (Eph 5:25)."
John Paul II continues, God "wills and He communicates the indissolubility of marriage as a fruit, a sign and a requirement of the absolutely faithful love that God has for man and that the Lord Jesus has for the Church." Only death can break this bond that unites a man to his wife because, as Tertullian says, " they are truly two in one flesh, and where the flesh is one, one is the spirit" (FC, 13). Marital unity and permanence indicate the bond between Christ and his Mystical Body.
The health and functionality of the family are the fruit of the true sense of marriage as a single and permanent union. Once the moral health of the family is corrupted, society ends up dysfunctional. We must pray and never stop fighting for the endurance of the sacred marital bond. Keeping Christian marriages alive is a battle for the life of society, and all of us must fight through our prayers for its sustenance. Divorce is not lawful in the eyes of Christ and His Church. Hence, we must strive to keep Christian marriages united and permanent. This calls for intense prayers.
We can adopt many forms of prayer to help keep marriage as one and untouched by divorce, but the Holy Rosary of Our Lady ranks high among them. She is the one at the marriage feast in Cana who rescued the newlywedded couple who ran out of wine. Our Lady's intercession is effective. Let us celebrate the feast of the Holy Rosary on Monday with a special plea to the Blessed Virgin Mary to obtain graces from her Son to keep marriage united and permanent.
Our parish's monthly Eucharistic Adoration is tomorrow, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. I cannot say enough about the spiritual potential of spending an hour with the Lord via silence, scriptures, and songs of praise. Again, I urge you and your family to make it a priority to attend and see how Jesus enriches you. I expect to see YOU!
In Jesus and Mary,
Fr. Bernard Alayode, OP
Is divorce lawful? According to the Bible, God does not permit divorce. The sacred texts for our Sunday mass, especially those from Gen 2: 18-24 and Mk 10: 2-12, point to marriage, the holy union between a man and a woman, as an icon of the bond between Christ and his mystical body, the Church. Christ institutes the sacrament of marriage, and part of its essential composition is unity and indissolubility because God is one and stable. Consequently, as a sacred bond, it cannot be dissolved. In other words, no human can dissolve a validly contracted marriage: "Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate."
Pope John Paul II stresses the need for the church to continue to affirm the unity and permanence components of marriage in his Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, 22: "It is a fundamentals duty of the church to reaffirm strongly... the doctrine of indissolubility of marriage. To all those who, in our times, consider it too difficult, or indeed impossible, to be bound to one person for the whole of life, and to those caught up in a culture that rejects the indissolubility of marriage and openly mocks the commitment of spouses to fidelity, it is necessary to reconfirm the good news of the definitive of that conjugal love that has in Christ the foundation and strength (Eph 5:25)."
John Paul II continues, God "wills and He communicates the indissolubility of marriage as a fruit, a sign and a requirement of the absolutely faithful love that God has for man and that the Lord Jesus has for the Church." Only death can break this bond that unites a man to his wife because, as Tertullian says, " they are truly two in one flesh, and where the flesh is one, one is the spirit" (FC, 13). Marital unity and permanence indicate the bond between Christ and his Mystical Body.
The health and functionality of the family are the fruit of the true sense of marriage as a single and permanent union. Once the moral health of the family is corrupted, society ends up dysfunctional. We must pray and never stop fighting for the endurance of the sacred marital bond. Keeping Christian marriages alive is a battle for the life of society, and all of us must fight through our prayers for its sustenance. Divorce is not lawful in the eyes of Christ and His Church. Hence, we must strive to keep Christian marriages united and permanent. This calls for intense prayers.
We can adopt many forms of prayer to help keep marriage as one and untouched by divorce, but the Holy Rosary of Our Lady ranks high among them. She is the one at the marriage feast in Cana who rescued the newlywedded couple who ran out of wine. Our Lady's intercession is effective. Let us celebrate the feast of the Holy Rosary on Monday with a special plea to the Blessed Virgin Mary to obtain graces from her Son to keep marriage united and permanent.
Our parish's monthly Eucharistic Adoration is tomorrow, the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. I cannot say enough about the spiritual potential of spending an hour with the Lord via silence, scriptures, and songs of praise. Again, I urge you and your family to make it a priority to attend and see how Jesus enriches you. I expect to see YOU!
In Jesus and Mary,
Fr. Bernard Alayode, OP
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