Divorce and the Catholic Church
Today’s Gospel brings up one of those statements in the Bible that is used to support the prohibition against divorce that is found in the Catholic Church. But when a couple of years ago, Pope Francis removed the blanket ban on divorced and re-married (outside the Church) Catholics from receiving Holy Communion and suggested that each case should be studied carefully, he seemed to be accepting the possibility that we need not, or should not, look at divorce in black and white categories. So, should divorce and remarriage never be allowed in the Catholic Church?
Today’s Gospel is taken from Mark where Jesus does teach clearly that divorce is not acceptable. We find this absolute prohibition against divorce also in Luke’s Gospel. If Mark’s was the earliest Gospel, then it is likely that this is what Jesus originally taught. That seems to settle it, doesn’t it? But the practice of the Church down the centuries, right from the time of the Apostles, was clearly different.
First of all, as mentioned multiple times in various earlier blogs of mine, it is a commonly accepted principle of Scripture study, that we must take the New Testament as a whole, and not focus on one passage in isolation from the rest. If that is the case, then we do need to also note that in Mathew (19:3-12), Jesus does offer an exception (i.e. on grounds of unchastity or sexual infidelity) when divorce, though not the ideal, may in fact be permitted. Was that Mathew’s addition? The fact is that, in practice, and in accordance with Mathean passage, permission to divorce and remarry in the Church was allowed in cases of adultery till the middle of the 16th century. And did Paul too create another exception when he taught (1 Corinthians 7:12-15) that divorce could be permitted because of differences in religious affiliation - even though he openly admits this is not a teaching from the Lord, but his own. Added to this was Paul’s teaching allowing the re-marriage of widows (Romans 7:2-3), which was his response to those in the early Church who argued that widows should not be allowed to re-marry, as the marriage bond could not be dissolved even if the spouse had died.
We also know from Church history, that the Church accepted the possibility of divorce under what was called the Petrine privilege, where even a valid marriage in the Church between a Christian and a non-Christian could be dissolved by the Pope for specific reasons, even allowing such a Christian to remarry in the Church. In short, it can be said that in practice all non-sacramental marriages could be dissolved in favour of a person who wanted to marry in the Church. But these exceptions in the teaching and practice of the Church would seem to go against Jesus’ teaching, which incidentally was a teaching that applied to all marriages, even those outside the Church, since Jesus gave that teaching in the context of Jewish marriages, and even before marriage was ever considered a sacrament. Finally even the International Theological Commission of the Catholic Church declared in 1977 that the teaching on marriage indissolubility was not to be considered a truth of faith.
So how do we put together these varied teachings found in the New Testament and the actual teaching and practice of the Church down the centuries ? A way forward could be found in the insight that Jesus’ teachings are very often ‘ideals’ to which we should aspire and not to be considered as the absolute minimum that must be legally enforced. Thus in Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon on the Mount (Mathew: chapters 5 to 7), we have Jesus teaching: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgement. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell……….” (Mathew 5:21-22). It is clear to all Christians that this teaching is not to be taken literally but is an ideal to which Jesus calls us. In the same chapter of Mathew’s Gospel there are six other teachings presented to us. And one of these is: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” So if some of these six similarly phrased teachings are to be considered as ideals to which we must aspire, then it stands to reason that all these teachings, including the one on divorce, are ideals to which we must aspire and not minimum requirements to be a Christian.
Such a conclusion also allows us to make sense of Pope Francis’ teaching that there should not be a blanket ban on divorced and remarried couples receiving Holy Communion, even as he continues to accept that the Catholic teaching against divorce was in keeping with Jesus’ ideal for marriage.
Of course, the teaching on divorce is only an example of a general attitude we should bring to understanding the moral teachings in the Church. We need to remember that the official teaching Church does not arbitrarily decide what is sinful, but plays the function of a guide to help us interpret the teachings in the Bible as they apply to the world today. That is why even some of the acts like partaking of blood, or accepting ‘prasad’ (i.e. food that is blessed in a temple by first being presented to the deity ) which were condemned at the first Jerusalem council of the Church, a council when Peter and Paul were both present, are no more considered sins today. Similarly, the Church has significantly downplayed the earlier commonly accepted understanding that ‘not going to Sunday Mass’ was a mortal sin. On the other hand, we have now begun to accept that the destruction of our environment/planet is sinful, an insight we certainly did not have for many centuries. So as the church grows, and as we grow, we have greater insights and so teachings change, or fall away into oblivion through quiet neglect. Because, as I have said before, we are all on a pilgrimage. So maybe we should not look at the Church as dictating what is sin, but only as a help to support us in identifying what is sinful in our world today as we journey to live up to the IDEALS that Jesus calls us to. The legalistic approach to God ,and to what is to be considered sinful, was clearly something that Jesus felt revolted by, when for instance he condemned in no uncertain terms the legalistic understanding of the Sabbath commandment that was common among the Jewish religious establishment of his time. We need to see virtue and sinfulness in the way we walk our journey, towards or away from our Abba Father.
First Reading: Genesis 2: 18-24
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
The man said,
“This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called ‘woman,’
for she was taken out of man.”
That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Second Reading: Hebrews 2: 9-11
But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.
Gospel: Mark 10: 2-16
Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” “What did Moses command you?” he replied. They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
People were bringing little children to Jesus for him to place his hands on them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” And he took the children in his arms, placed his hands on them and blessed them.
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