A reading from
the holy Gospel according to Matthew.
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘You have heard that it was said, “You
shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman
with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right
eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to
lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And
if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better
for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
‘It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate
of divorce.” But I say to you that anyone who divorces his wife, except on the
ground of unchastity, causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a
divorced woman commits adultery. This is the Word of the Lord. (Mt 5, 27-32)
At the beginning of Chapter 5 of Matthew’s
Gospel, Jesus teaches the crowd and the disciples that came to him. He starts
by announcing what we now call The Beatitudes proposing them as sure ways of
following him and of receiving God’s blessings. Then he says two very important
things that will help us, I hope, to reflect on today’s Gospel selection.
First he tells the people: “You are the
salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be
restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot.” Thus he tells them what he expects of them. He
expects his followers to be able to ‘preserve’ what is good in man and in the
human community, and to give ‘taste’ to life. This is what salt is for! That’s
why Jesus said to them: “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that
of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”.
Jesus is not preaching generalities. He is asking people to be ‘salt’ where
life is tasteless, and to be light where darkness tends to reign. Is this not a
job for Christians in our days? In truth, this is our vocation!
Then Jesus assures them: “Do not think
that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish
but to fulfil”. With these words Jesus
is explaining what his vocation is. Jesus, in fact, became man and lived among
humans so as to lead them to the fullness of life. Didn’t he say: “I came that
they [you/we]may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10, 10).
This brings us to today’s reading in which
Jesus speaks about divorce and adultery.
With regard to divorce, Jesus reminds his
listeners: “It was said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a
certificate of divorce.” People interpreted this as a permission Moses gave in
favour of divorce. It was not! Let us remember Christ’s answer to the question
put forward by the Pharisees: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Matthew
adds a phrase to this question: ”… for any cause”. Jesus asked them: “What did Moses command you?” They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write
a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” Jesus asked about a command from Moses, the
Pharisees answered “Moses allowed…” Did Moses command or did he allow, that is
to say, are the words of Moses a command or are they a permission?
Jesus knew that it was a command and not a permission. That is why he said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he
wrote this commandment for you”. St. Augustine explains that “the difficulty which Moses is careful to put in the
way, shows that he was no good friend to the practice [of divorce] at all”. In
fact, he did not give a permission for divorce, he was trying to stop their
practice of divorcing ‘for any cause’. Pseudo Chrysostom points out that “Moses
therefore suffered a bill of divorcement, not because it was a good practice in
itself, but was the prevention of a worse evil” for, he said, if a man was not
permitted to divorce his wife, “he was ready either to kill her or ill-treat
her”. “They were indeed Hebrews in race”,
he said, “but Egyptians in manners”. Can we apply this to today’s general
mentality in which our experience tells us, many are Christians by name but
Pagans in manners? Pope Francis frequently reminds us that we are living in a
‘throw-away’ culture, and divorce is part of it. And adultery is!
When commenting on the commandment: "You
shall not commit adultery," Saint Augustine asks why is it that a man
thinks that he has a right to go to other women in adulterous meetings. He
says: “You shall go nowhere but to your
lawful wife. For if you exact this of your wife, you ought to do the same, for
the husband ought to go before the wife in virtue. It is a shame for the
husband to say that this is impossible. Why not the husband as well as the
wife?” This is St. Augustine.
Many would say that in our days it is
different. Men and women have equal rights! Well, is that true? Women have more
rights now than in the past. Are they not still subject to men’s desires? Are
we aware of what they have to face to get a job for which they have the same
qualifications as men? Don’t many women face sexual harassment … anywhere,
everywhere?
A few days ago Italy was shocked when
people heard about a young lady of 22 years who was burnt alive because she
wanted to separate from her boy-friend, and he told the police that he did not
want her to belong to any other man but him! You may say that it is only one
case. Is it? If it is, it is one too much! But, if it is only one case, then
why is there a movement in all the country against what is called “femicide”
which, according to the World Health Organization, “is
generally understood to involve intentional murder of women because they are
women, but broader definitions include any killings of women or girls… most
cases of femicide are committed by partners or ex-partners, and involve ongoing
abuse in the home, threats or intimidation, sexual violence or situations where
women have less power or fewer resources than their partner.”
I am not reflecting about divorce and
adultery only in their link to marriage or its dissolution. I believe that
divorce and adultery in the normal way of our understanding are only a small
part of the “throw-away” culture.
When speaking about divorce in Matthew 19,
Jesus declared: “what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mt 19, 5).
Divorce, in the strict sense of the word
is not the only separation that humans practice today, and adultery is not the
only adulteration that our society practices.
Is not corruption a sort of divorce, an
adulteration of honesty and justice?
Is not abortion a sort of divorce and an
adulteration of human rights? If God’s Law states: “You shall not murder” and
Jesus adds “and if you say, “You fool”, you will be liable to the hell of
fire”, what would he say if we affirm that people have a right to kill a child
in the womb? And what about our fuss if a man kicks a dog [he shouldn’t] and at
the same time call for the right to kill a child?
Is not euthanasia a sort of divorce and
adulteration of the right to life? And what would Jesus say to those who
advocate euthanasia for children?
I think that these three examples that immediately
come to mind are enough to show how broad is our divorce mentality, our culture
of adultery. Unfortunately, the list is very long. It is a culture, a
widespread mentality! We easily focus on one topic or another, and forget the
roots from which they receive their nourishment, and grow.
I think that we should always keep in mind
Jesus’ cry: “What God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mt 19, 5). We
are not gods!
We should also remember his words: “You are the salt of the earth ... You are the light of
the world. ... let your light shine before others, so that they may see your
good works and give glory to your Father in heaven” (Mt 5, 13-16).
If we lose our ‘saltiness’ and if we hide
our ‘light’ what would become of the world? Let us not ‘waste’ our Christian
vocation!
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