Friday, August 12, 2016
19th Week in
Ordinary Time
1st Reading:
Ez 16: 1-15. 60. 63
Gospel: Matthew 19:3-12
Some Pharisees approached him. They wanted to test him and asked, “Is a man allowed to divorce his wife for any reason he wants?”
Jesus replied, “Have you not read that in the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and he said: Man has now to leave father and mother, and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one body? So they are no longer two but one body; let no one separate what God has joined.”
They asked him, “Then, why did Moses command us to write a bill of dismissal in order to divorce?” Jesus replied, “Moses knew your stubborn heart, so he allowed you to divorce your wives, but it was not so in the beginning. Therefore I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, unless it be for infidelity, and marries another, commits adultery.”
The disciples said, “If that is the condition of a married man, it is better not to marry.” Jesus said to them, “Not everybody can accept what you have just said, but only those who have received this gift.
Some are born incapable of marriage. Some have been made that way by others. But there are some who have given up the possibility of marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who can accept it, accept it.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
In 2005 Gabriela Women’s Party Representatives filed HB 4016 introducing divorce as an option for couples in “failed or irreparable marriages”. As early as 1999, Rep. Manuel Ortega already filed House Bill 6993 seeking the legalization of divorce. In 2001 Sen. Rodolfo Biazon and Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo proposed something similar. Gabriela’s Bill proposed five grounds to support a petition for divorce: (1) separation in fact for five years, and legal separation for two years; (2) psychological incapacity; (3) irreconcilable differences; (4) marital violence, and; (5) irreparable breakdown of marriage.
Why include psychological incapacity when both the Church and the State consider marriage entered into under this circumstance as void from the start? Separation de facto for five years is a dangerous ground because it subjects marriage to the caprice of couples. All they have to do is separate from each other, wait for five years, and file a petition for divorce.
As to marital violence men can very well defend themselves while women have ample laws to invoke such as R.A. 9262. As to irreconcilable differences, the best solution is seriousness at the engagement stage. A law imposing 7-year mandatory engagement stage should be passed instead. – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM, MMExM, MAPM, REB. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com.
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