Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10, 1-12
Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan.
Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom,
he again taught them.
The Pharisees approached him and asked,
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
They replied,
“Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her.”
But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.”
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”
The importance of commitment
1) Teaching. The gospel begins saying Jesus teaches and accompanies because He knows people have doubts, that there are things that are not easy in life and that it’s difficult to walk along with those doubts. He knows not everything is understood and nobody is born knowing everything. In this life you will trip up and make mistakes because nobody always has the winning hand or can buy success.
Before pointing your finger at someone, remember there are other fingers pointing at you. In this life no one can say “it will never happen to me,” because you don’t know what tomorrow holds. That is why Jesus stops and teaches. He teaches with mercy because He knows we are weak and in Him we find strength.
2) Hardness of heart. It is worth clarifying that divorce is an issue that happens, and, in several cases, it is the only way out. A toxic relationship can be worse, destroying instead of constructing and the final result is a destruction of God’s image between spouses and in front of the children. Hardness of heart occurs when dialogue disappears and when personal objectives prevail over marital or family ones. The heart becomes hard when you don’t listen to the other and you withdraw inside yourself. What was a fluid relationship can become toxic and bitter. You need love, humility, and God’s presence.
3) The heart. There are many struggles we must deal with and I understand you when you make mistakes. But when the heart is lost in lust and in your own interests, when you only care about satiating your appetites and pride takes over and you turn the person you love into an object for your satisfactions, then it becomes manipulation.
Ask God for the grace to have a healthy heart, which allows you to strengthen your relationship with your true love. How to know what true love is? You only need to know that it brings life and knows how to deal with reality, both family and personal, in order to give it to God.
God bless you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Always remember, Heaven is our goal.
