Homily for the 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time. Gospel of St. Mark 10:2-16. Theme: Covenant or Contract?
This Sunday's liturgy focuses primarily upon the awesome mystery and meaning of marriage. Sacred Scripture begins with the creation and union of man and woman in Genesis and ends with "the wedding feast of the Lamb" in the Book of Revelation. So we see that the Holy Bible refers to marriage from its first to its last page. God gave marriage its natural origin and purpose and then Jesus elevated it to the supernatural status of a Sacrament, making matrimony a channel of his uplifting grace enabling spouses to preserve their union through good times and bad.
The Pharisees were known for trying to trap Jesus throughout his public ministry. In our Gospel reading their question about the lawfulness of divorce was intended to put Jesus between a rock and a hard place. They knew that divorce was not in God’s original plan for marriage, but they also knew that God’s great prophet Moses had allowed husbands and wives to divorce. So, where would Jesus stand in this seemingly contrary situation? Would he turn his back on the law of Moses which they held to be untouchable?
But our Lord doesn’t fall into their carefully set trap. He emphasizes that it was Moses and not God who allowed for divorce and refers them back to the Book of Genesis which asserts God’s original intention for marriage. He reiterates to them that when a man and woman get married they become “one flesh” by entering into a union which is both bonded TO God and bonded BY God. Thus Jesus says, “what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” This was a hard teaching for some who heard Jesus to accept and it remains a challenge for many today. It seems to me that a big part of the problem today is that people are using the same word (“marriage”) but they are using it to describe two related but different things! Let’s look at both viewpoints.
The Church sees God's design of marriage as a COVENANT. This means it’s intended to be a three-way bond between the Lord, the groom and the bride. The couple agrees to live out their relationship with God and in obedience to his Word. In return God pledges to be with them always and assist them. As the late sainted Archbishop Fulton Sheen used to say, "It takes three to get married!" This covenant made BY and WITH God can only be broken by God and can end only with the death of one of the spouses.
On the other hand, non-Christian sources see marriage as a CONTRACT and not a covenant. For them it is a man-made legal partnership by which persons enter into a legal agreement. And as a legal document it can define marriage anyway it wishes. It can also end the legal relationship upon the decision of the signers of the marriage license. A judge then declares the contract null and void and that the person is legally free to enter into another civil marriage contract.
So you see the vast difference and divergence between the two definitions!
The widespread confusion between covenant vs. contract is really what is at the heart of a misunderstanding of marriage. Being raised in a culture where the dominant media is more prominent than faith in their moral formation, children can grow up with a warped-image of matrimony. This media disinformation gives rise to the idea even among some Christians that the best and most normal “marriage preparation”,so to speak, is had by living together in disregard for God’s Word. It further muddies the matrimonial waters by claiming that all weddings are pretty much the same, whether it be a ceremony celebrated sacramentally in a church OR a civil service held at a vineyard (or some other desired venue). And finally, it delivers the fateful message that a marriage can end when hopes for how it should have been do not become a reality.
But there is a short and simple response to these errors promoted by the media and society in general. And it can be found in the sacred promise that is traditionally spoken at a Catholic wedding: “...to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part.” This is the real heart and soul of a holy matrimony that is lived out, day by day, by both husband and wife who mean what they say and who depend upon Christ to supply what they lack.
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