His disciples said to him,
"If that is the case of a man with his wife,
it is better not to marry."
He answered, "Not all can accept this word,
but only those to whom that is granted.
I met a woman -- a church-going Christian woman -- several years ago who had been married five times. Her second and fifth husbands were the same man. She was about to marry again, to her third husband because he said he would kill himself if they didn't marry.
I asked her, "Did it ever occur to you that you were not meant for marriage in the first place?"
She had never thought of that.
Her Christian denomination does not offer celibacy as an optional way of life. If there is no explicit imperative to get married, it is nonetheless expected and demanded of everyone. If you cannot marry someone of the opposite sex, marry someone of your own. Taking it to another oxymoronic extreme, some individuals have invited all their friends to attend their wedding to themselves. It's called sologomy.
I'm not kidding! Look it up!
As the psalmist wrote, "If foundations are destroyed, what can the just one do?”
In this case, the foundation is not only God's law; it's common sense.
In today's gospel, our dimwitted disciples are astounded by Jesus' teaching about marriage, divorce, and remarriage. "It's better not to marry!" they declare.
Many people agree with them. Which leads to more abandoned women, children, and men. Not to mention brokenhearted grandparents, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews. A nation of individuals will not emerge from the chaos; it will be only a mob, unsettled and dangerous.
But Jesus and his Church cannot back down. Marriage means for life, not so long as friendship lasts. Indeed a marriage founded on friendship is built on sand.
Our marriages are built on the Word of God. The gates of hell cannot prevail against them. If the Lord is not the First Party to the marriage, there is no Christian marriage, despite anything supreme courts and civil governments might say.
I looked it up. What’s next?
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