A Vision for Marriage
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October 5, 2018The readings for today focus on God’s vision of marriage, which is a hot topic in our culture. Today the Church invites us to meditate on the truth about marriage. And as we’ll see, God created marriage to reveal the very meaning of our existence, and it is very good!
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1st Reading Reflection Discussion 2nd Readin Reflection Digging Deeper Gospel Reflection Join us for FORMED Fellowship + Lunch
Invite a friend or family
(Sunday @ 12:00 noon in the Hall)
Genesis 2:18−24
First Reading ReflectionToday’s first reading from Genesis, alongside the Gospel reading from Matthew, can help us to understand man as male and female, as well as the Sacrament of Matrimony.
We know that God created us in His image and likeness by giving us the spiritual faculties of the will and intellect. No other creature, other than the angels, has been given this sublime gift. The source of our natural dignity comes from the fact that we have the ability to reason and to choose. The dignity of the human person reveals the divine origin of the equal dignity of male and female. Adam is able to say to Eve, “This one is bone of my bones and ϐlesh of my ϐlesh” because God creates both in equal dignity.
The uniqueness we possess by being spiritual creatures is something that permeates every aspect of our lives; we cannot divorce our physical selves from our spiritual selves. This is especially true with respect to the question of marriage and it is always important to consider not only the physical end (to be fruitful and multiply) but the spiritual as well. A husband and wife join themselves together in the most intimate way not only by the union of their bodies but especially by the union of their spirits. The biblical language of Genesis does not make the same kind of philosophical distinction between the soul and body that we make today. So when Genesis says that “the two of them become one body,” this means that the totality of each person becomes a unity of body and soul in marriage.
This union of the man and woman is the basis for the indissolubility of marriage. God has created marriage such that only death can dissolve the union of the husband and wife. God is the Author of marriage, which means that we cannot change its deϐinition or understanding to meet our own society’s desires. For this reason, the Church upholds the doctrine of indissolubility, because of its good for the couple and the good of the children who come from the union of the spouses. Couples are given the gift of children; this is why the husband and wife are called “procreators.” This procreation is derived from God’s command to be “fruitful and multiply.”.
Second Reading Reflection
Hebrews 2 must be understood in light of Hebrews 1. In Hebrews 1, there is strong emphasis that Jesus Christ is superior to the angels. As such, His New Covenant is greater than Covenant of the Old Testament; his Covenant fulfills the promises made in the Old Covenant.
Hebrews 1 states that Jesus is above the angels and prophets. In Hebrews 2, we are presented with the following paradox: how can the Son, who is far greater than all the angels, take on human flesh and thereby become inferior to the angels? For, the audience of this letter was the Jewish Christians, who would have had a difficult time reconciling Christ’s Incarnation, suffering , and death with the reality that he is also God. This great love is still a mystery for us today. Hebrews 2 quotes Psalm 8, which foretold Christ’s Incarnation.
What is man that you should be mindful of him, or the son of man, that you should care for him? You have made him for a little while lower than the angels... (Heb. 2:6-7)
It is important to note that the title “Son of Man” is the most frequent title that Jesus uses to describe himself. The beginning of the Psalm states the son of man seems insignificant next to the sun, stars, and the entire cosmos. Yet, the Psalmist sings, God has made him lower than the angels for only “a little while.” This indicates that Christ took on flesh for only a short time; he submitted himself humbly as a servant, even to the point of death on the Cross, as Philippians 2:5-11 beautifully describes.
Why did Jesus take a form lower than the angels; in other words, why did he become Incarnate in flesh? The Catechism of the Catholic Church answers this question in the words of St. Irenaeus. For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God (no. 460).
Jesus took on flesh so that we might become the sons of God. This is the meaning of Hebrews 2:10, which says He brings “many sons to glory.” In other words, Christ became man to save man from his sins. Jesus saves fallen humanity by giving us the ability to become sons of God and to be divinized. Just as the sick body needs medicine, so our fallen human nature, which sick with sin, needs the medicine of Christ’s divinity.
Gospel Reflection
Our readings from Genesis and this Gospel together show how Jesus claims to have greater authority than Moses, which would have shocked the Pharisees. When the Pharisees question him concerning divorce, he effectively reestablishes the divine law concerning the sacrament of marriage from the very beginning. He explains that Moses allowed divorce for the hardness of their hearts.
This would have been a shocking assertion to the Jews, since God gave the law to Moses. It is no wonder that the Jews approached Jesus with this question, “By what authority do you do these things?” The fact that Jesus is here changing part of the Mosaic law reveals that he is the “prophet” foretold by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-19.). As we read, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their kinsmen, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command him.” (Dt. 18:18) The Jews identified this “prophet” with the coming Messiah (see John 6:14; 7:40-41).
Interestingly enough, after reaffirming the indissolubility of the marriage covenant by citing Genesis 2:24, Jesus turns immediately to the question of children. Just as God had said “Be fertile and multiply” to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 1: 28), so now Jesus, after restoring marriage to its proper dignity as an indissoluble bond, says “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them. It is to just such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. This lesson is profound, because it reveals the essential importance of the unitive and procreative ends of marriage. The couple become one flesh through consummating marriage, and through this union, children will be brought into the world and then baptized for the Kingdom of God.
To accept this teaching, one must become like a little child oneself. A child is one who trusts his or her parents to provide every need, to heal every wound. The Father hopes that we will trust ourselves to Him like little children.
MEDITATION & DISCUSSION:
The Church teaching on marriage is always seen through this lens of love, finding its roots in the communion of love in the Holy Trinity.
- How does this perspective differ from your perceptions of what the Church teaches?
- What if true happiness is actually possible by following God’s original plan for marriage?
- Does the idea of that possibility give you hope?
- Spend some time as a group applying this perspective of love to some of the different moral questions of our time – divorce, contraception, pre-marital sex, abortion, cohabitation, same-sex “marriage,” etc.
- Do the Church’s teachings make more sense to you?
- How are the Church’s true teaching on marriage different from the world’s views?
- If we truly lived God’s original plan for marriage, do you think true happiness would be possible?
DIGGING DEEPER:
Seeking HealingThere are more and more people intimately and deeply affected by broken marriages. Hurtful experiences with our parents or spouses deeply impact us, and they also impact our relationship with God and His Church. Very often, resistance to the joyful teachings on marriage from the Church is rooted in deep personal pain.
We ought to seek healing from Jesus when we are affected by these negative experiences. Jesus comes to bring us all healing. Encourage your participants to be honest with themselves about sufferings in their lives that might be preventing them from receiving the Church’s teachings with joy, and to seek help if they need it. You can point them to good Christian counselors in your area or resources on healing prayer.
Reflections reprinted with permission from Opening the Word at Formed.org .
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