Pentecost 19 Feast of the Holy Rosary

“Therefore what God has joined together let no one separate.” Mark 10:9

People have a tendency to look for the loopholes.

Moses and the prophets observe this tendency in human nature. Moses heard the word of God directly from the Word of God. He declared to the people: this is God’s word. And, when (not if) you break this word these are the sacrifices you must bring to the altar until God deals with the root cause of disobedience.

And so, God reveals to Moses- I am the Lord your God and you shall have no other gods except me. The people say: yes. Amen. So be it. Then, they begin to parse the words. Who is this god? How can Moses tell us that this God will not reveal himself to other people under a different name and in a different manner? If that is true then worship is strictly how each individual exercises his or her own conscience.

What difference does it really make if we worship the one God in the context of the many faces that god reveals to the nations of the earth? All other things being equal, all religions and all images of God derive from and point to the same reality.

It sounds nice. It sounds reasonable. It even may sound democratic. The flaw in this line of reasoning is that all things are not equal. Moses and the prophets declare that God is the great “I am”. We cannot define God. Only God can reveal himself to us.

Worship is not a matter of opinion or personal preference. Worship is God’s call to humanity to be unified with the Father, through the Son, by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In fact, the prophets are very blunt in telling us: you become who you worship and you become how you worship. Worship is so important that God himself sets the day, the form and the reality of worship. As with worship so with marriage.

God designed all human beings to find ourselves and to form our unique personal identities through worship. God also designed most human beings to form intimate personal relationships in marriage. God created marriage. God clarifies for us that marriage is a sacrament and a covenant. It is not a civil contract we can make and break as we choose. As a sacrament, marriage is the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual grace that mirrors the relationship of the soul to God.  As a covenant, marriage is a set of promises made to God, the church and to the marriage partner.

Through the sacrament of marriage two become one. Make no mistake, Moses, the prophets, the apostles and Jesus all define marriage as a sacrament and a covenant between one man and one woman. One means one- not one at a time.

At the risk of offending everyone, Western Civilization abandoned the Biblical and traditional understanding of marriage in the post-World War two era through the revision of the divorce laws.

As with the commandments relating to worship, people have always attempted to find the loop hole in the commandments relating to marriage. One of the benefits of the Bible is that it demonstrates the consequences of human behavior over the course of an entire lifetime and over the course of many lifetimes.

And so, the Bible reveals how David cheated on his marriage vows and how the consequences led to murder, death and civil war.

Solomon cheated on God’s definition of marriage and the result was the desecration of the Temple by the introduction of false gods and false forms of worship.

Even as Moses gave God’s definition of marriage the people rebelled and demanded a loophole. So, Moses gave them one. And, it has been with us in one form or another ever since. And, if the scriptures portray an accurate understanding of human nature it will remain with us until Jesus returns.

Jesus did not reaffirm his Heavenly Father’s definition on marriage to condemn anyone. There is no condemnation in Jesus Christ. Jesus did reaffirm the Father’s definition of marriage to offer people the blessing God designed into marriage. And, Jesus wanted people to consider the level of hypocrisy they lived by in excusing their own sin while condemning others.

Jesus was very clear to the religious people of his time: marriage is designed by God and defined by God as the sacramental union of one man and one woman- not one at a time. That and that alone is the standard.

Jesus also understands the problem most human beings have in lving according to this standard. The problem is separation.

As with all sin, divorce is the end result of a long chain of cause and effect with its roots in Original Separation.

The Bible teaches that the family is the basic unit of society. People declare the basic unit of society is the individual.

The Bible reveals that we are our brother’s keeper. People declare that I am only responsible for myself.

The Bible teaches that two become one in the sacrament of marriage. People declare that civil law can dissolve the bond God has established.

Jesus is very clear that divorce is just one of many ways human beings who are lost in separation choose to perpetuate separation. Jesus came into the world to deal with the Original Choice our species made to separate from God. He accomplishes reunification in his own body by uniting divinity with humanity.

Jesus dealt with the consequences of separation on the cross by taking sin and death into himself and transforming them back into virtue and life by his own infinite and eternal love.

The solution to separation is reunification. The solution to sin is transformation. Reunification happens in a moment of time in the waters of Baptism. Transformation takes a lifetime.

Transformation requires a courageous honesty to look at ourselves in the light of Christ to see where our thoughts are not in accord with God’s thoughts because of pride and arrogance, where our emotions are distorted by fear and anxiety, and where our wills are weakened and subverted by self-indulgent individualism.

That is the lesson in Jesus embracing children and setting children as the key to understanding how we enter into the kingdom of heaven. We need to stop blaming others for the problems we create. We need to get back to basics. We need to experience the joy of being born again and then seeing the world with a fresh vision.

Jesus is clear in his teaching that God created marriage and human beings created divorce. This is a great tragedy. An even greater tragedy is the set of conditions that human beings manifest in our personal lives to make divorce an inescapable option. The greatest tragedy is the Original Choice our species made to separate from God, each other, our families, our spouses and ultimately from life itself.

Law cannot solve the problem. The solution is Jesus. Jesus not only shows us the way, he is the way. He is the way of patient and courageous humility. He is the way of positive and cumulative change. He is the Way of a new life that produces a new way of living.

The challenge to this new way of living is twofold. First is our own tendency to assert our self-will to live by the principle: it is all about me. My will be done. The second lies in the institutions human beings have created to enshrine the distorted values of separation. The key is choice.

Jesus sets us free from the slavery of individual and institutional self-will. He sets us free to make a series of small choices to move into a new way of living that is formed by faith, hope and charity. We can choose to take the next step forward in healing the pain of separation that defines our souls and our society.

Jesus sets the stage for us to grow in grace by reminding us that as the problem defining our species is separation so the solution is reunification.

God designed us to live in the perfect three fold union of love manifesting in worship, service to others and personal holiness. “Therefore what God has joined together let no one separate.”