Mk 10:1-12
1[Jesus] set out from [Capernaum] and went into the district of Judea [and] across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them. 2The Pharisees approached and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were testing him. 3He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” 4They replied, “Moses permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” 5But Jesus told them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. 6But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.
7For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife], 8and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” 10In the house the disciples again questioned him about this. 11He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; 12and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate: Whenever I officiate at the wedding of a couple, I have the feeling that these two kind souls did not meet and know each other by chance or that fate brought them together. I believe that God’s hand somehow allowed these two people to fall in love with each other and not with another person.
I wonder how two people can fall for each other when they are so apart. Then I realize later that they are indeed the best partners no matchmaker can bring together. God must have willed that they be united from the start.
In my life as a priest, I see God’s hand directing me, guiding me to end up in the priesthood and not with any of my past girlfriends. He has joined me to him; no man can undo that. He has joined our parents together, and no man can separate them. More astounding than joining or separation is God’s hand directing our paths. Some people may call that fate or destiny or chance. I call him God!
Marriage and Divorce: Marriage in Israel was a private contract where the parties were not the bride and the groom but the families, that is, the fathers of the spouses. The contract was sealed by the payment of the mohar (dowry) to the parents of the bride who was then introduced to the home of the husband. The marriage could be dissolved through divorce, but this was avoided so as not to cause enmity and division. Jesus affirms the indissolubility of marriage by going back to the original plan of God for it (Gn 2:18-25).