Reflection: Mark 10:1-12

Friday of the Seventh Week on Ordinary Time – Mark 10:1-12

Today the Pharisees once again try to corner Jesus.  They approach him and ask: “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”  Jesus responds, but he asks them a question.  He asks: “What did Moses command you?”  They replied: “Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.”  Jesus bluntly says to the Pharisees: “Moses only wrote the bill of divorce because of the peoples’ stubbornness and hardness of heart.”   Jesus then states: “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.”

From the beginning of time, relationships have been fragile.  This is especially true in marriage where two individuals live day in and day out with each other.  At times, the hard work a good marriage requires may test the strength and the commitment of the two individuals in the relationship.  The current reality is that we live in a disposable world.  We use a computer for a time.  Then a new model comes out and we buy the new one.  The old computer may be handed down or sit in the garage.  We drive our car for 100,000 miles but then we trade it in for a newer model.

All relationships require a great deal of work, be that work relationships, friends or family.  However, with work and friends we do not commit ourselves to an individual for life.  It seems that in today’s world, relationships are considered disposable.  Yes, there are instances when the healthiest choice for a spouse or a family would be divorce.  Most likely this was also true in Jesus’ day.  Yet Jesus clearly desires that we give our best and our all to any significant relationship, especially marriage.

Perhaps Jesus is asking us to make thoughtful and loving choices, discerning choices. Since we live in a disposable world, our instinct is to move on to another relationship or another job.  This may be the healthiest choice for us.  However, when we commit ourselves to marriage or religious life, we promise to work together in good times and in bad.  This may mean counseling, making a marriage encounter, giving our all to see if the marriage can be saved.  Divorce may still be the answer.  However, hopefully it will not be the first answer we consider!