Friday, August 16, 2013
19th Week in Ordinary Time 1st Reading: Jos 24:1-13 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)
During the 14th Congress, Gabriela Women’s Party Representatives filed a Bill proposing five grounds for divorce, namely: (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.
Let us briefly evaluate each.
Why include psychological incapacity when both the Catholic Church and the State already consider marriage entered into under this circumstance as void from the start? The other grounds undermine the permanence of a marriage that is entered into in accordance with law. Separation de facto for five years subjects marriage to the caprice of couples because all they have to do is to 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 in the engagement stage.
A law imposing 7-year mandatory engagement stage should be passed instead. Sounds ridiculous? But how does a divorce law sound? To Jesus Christ it sounds too immoral to be given first base (Matthew 19:3-12). – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: dan.delosangeles@gmail.com. Website: www.frdan.org.
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