God Never Leaves

A Reflection on the Gospel ​for Sunday, October 6th, 2024:
Twenty-Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Mark
​10.2-12

(For the longer version, see the print edition of Living with Christ.)

Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Jesus answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.”

But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 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, let no one separate.”

Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. Jesus 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.”

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

What God has joined together, let no one separate.

There’s no way around it: marriage can be hard sometimes. 

I was surprised to hear, then, that Canada’s divorce rate is the lowest it’s been in 50 years. However, that statistic doesn’t necessarily mean that fewer couples are actually separating. In fact, the data shows that more couples are just not getting married at all. 

Having experienced highs and lows in my 16 years of marriage, I can sympathize with the reticence. Even the Catechism of the Catholic Church recognizes the challenge that marriage demands: “This experience [of evil] makes itself felt in the relationships between man and woman. Their union has always been threatened by discord, a spirit of domination, infidelity, jealousy, and conflicts that can escalate into hatred and separation [...] this unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize.” CCC 1606; 1615

The Pharisees knew of the difficulties married people face when they tested Jesus by asking about divorce. But Jesus understands the hardness of the human heart. Sin causes men and women to misunderstand each other. Sadly, when things go awry, walking away seems more amenable than working things out. 

Jesus, however, toes the line on marriage. He redeems the vocation, making it a conduit of grace for couples, enabling them to fulfill the duties prescribed to them. We also know that marriage is a sacrament, and sacraments are tangible signs of the reality of our faith. Sacramental marriage, then, is the earthly image and representation of God’s fidelity to us. 

By free will, out of love and uncoerced, Jesus chose to die for us. He asks married couples to do the same for each other. 

It’s a tall ask, and it’s impossible without grace. 

But whether you’re married, single, widowed, consecrated, or even divorced, God’s design for marriage reveals a simple, comforting truth about Himself: despite the cross, God never leaves.

God has freely chosen you to be His, and He is always with you. He longs for a relationship with you that is the equivalent of marriage as He intended: free, faithful, indissoluble, forever.

Today, regardless of your state in life, allow God’s blueprint of marriage to remind you of His unwavering fidelity to you. Marvel at how deeply He loves you. Know that He is always there, has always been there and will never leave. Imagine what this intimate relationship looks like in light of eternity. Freely accept His proposal, if not for the first time, but again and again. Finally, let Him lavish you with His extravagant, personal, and sacrificial love.




Michelynne Gomez

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