DAILY GOSPEL COMMENTARY: MARRIAGE AND VIRGINITY (Mt 19:3–12).

DAILY MASS, GOSPEL AND COMMENTARY:
MARRIAGE AND VIRGINITY
(Mt 19:3–12).

Gospel of Friday, 19th week in Ordinary time (Mt 19:3–12)

Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” (4) He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator made them male and female (5) and said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, man must not separate.” They said to him, “Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss her?” He said to them, “Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. (9) I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.” His disciples said to him, “If that is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”(11) He answered, “Not all can accept this word, but only those to whom that is granted. (12) Some are incapable of marriage because they were born so; some, because they were made so by others; some, because they have renounced marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven. Whoever can accept this ought to accept it.”

Gospel Commentary from the Navarre Bible, Commentary to the Gospel of St. Matthew (with permission)

• 4-5 THE TEACHING OF THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, Gaudium et spes, 50:
  • “Marriage and married love are by nature ordered to the procreation and education of children. Indeed children are the supreme gift of marriage and greatly contribute to the good of the parents themselves. God himself said: ‘It is not good that man should be alone’ (Gen 2:18), and ‘from the beginning (he) made them male and female’ (Mt 19:4); wishing to associate them in a special way with his own creative work, God blessed man and woman with the words: ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ (Gen 1:28). Without intending to underestimate the other ends marriage, it must be said that true married life and the whole structure of family life which results from it is directed to disposing the spouses to cooperate valiantly with the love of the Creator and Saviour, who through them will increase and enrich his family from day to day” (Vatican II, Gaudium el spes, 50).
• 9 Our Lord’s teaching on the unity and indissolubility of marriage is the main theme of this passage, apropos of which St John Chrysostom comments that marriage is a lifelong union of man and woman (cf. Hom, on St Matthew, 62).
  • On the meaning of “except for unchastity”, see note on Mt 5:31-32 which is as follows:
  • 31-32 The Law of Moses (Deut 24:1), which was laid down in ancient times, had tolerated divorce due to the hardness of heart of the early Hebrews.
    • But it had not specified clearly the grounds on which divorce might be obtained.
    • The rabbis worked out different sorts of interpretations, depending on which school they belonged to — solutions ranging from very lax to quite rigid.
    • In all cases, only husband could repudiate wife, not vice-versa. A woman’s inferior position was eased somewhat by the device of a written document whereby the husband freed the repudiated woman to marry again if she wished.
    • Against these rabbinical interpretations, Jesus re-establishes the original indissolubility of marriage as God instituted it (Gen 1:27; 2:24; cf. Mt 19:4-6; Eph 1:31; 1 Cor 7:10).
  • [The RSVCE carries a note which reads: “unchastity”: The Greek word used here appears to refer to marriages which were not legally marriages, because they were either within the forbidden degrees of consanguinity (Lev 18:6-16) or contracted with a Gentile. The phrase except on the ground of unchastity does not occur in the parallel passage in Lk 16:18. See also Mt 19:9 (Mk 10:11-12), and especially 1 Cor 7:10-11, which shows that the prohibition is unconditional.]
    • The phrase, “except on the ground of unchastity”, should not be taken as indicating an exception to the principle of the absolute indissolubility of marriage which Jesus has just re-established. It is almost certain that the phrase refers to unions accepted as marriage among some pagan peoples, but prohibited as incestuous in the Mosaic Law (cf. Lev 18) and in rabbinical tradition. The reference, then, is to unions radically invalid because of some impediment. When persons in this position were converted to the true faith, it was not that their union could be dissolved: it was declared that they had never in fact been joined in true marriage. Therefore, this phrase does not go against the indissolubility of marriage, but rather reaffirms it.
  • On the basis of Jesus’ teaching and guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church has ruled that in the specially grave case of adultery it is permissible for a married couple to separate, but without the marriage bond being dissolved: therefore, neither party may contract a new marriage.
    • The indissolubility of marriage was unhesitating taught by the Church from the very beginning; she demanded practical and legal recognition of this doctrine, expounded with full authority by Jesus (Mt 19:3-9; Mk 10:1-12; Lk 16:18) and by the Apostles (1 Cor 6:16; 7:10-11, 39; Rom 7:2-3; Eph 5:310. […]

• 11 “Not all men can receive this precept”: our Lord is fully aware that the demands involved in his teaching on marriage and his recommendation of celibacy practised out of love of God run counter to human selfishness. That is why he says that acceptance of this teaching is a gift from God.
• 12 Our Lord speaks figuratively here, referring to those who, out of love for him, renounce marriage and offer their lives completely to him.
  • Virginity embraced for the love of God is one of the Church’s most precious charisms (cf. I Cor 7); the lives of those who practise virginity evoke the state of the blessed in heaven, who are like the angels (cf. Mt 22:30),
    • This is why the Church’s Magisterium teaches that the state of virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven is higher than the married state (cf. Council of Trent, De Sacram. rnatr., can. 10; cf. also Pius XII, Sacra virginitas).
  • On virginity and celibacy the Second Vatican Council teaches:
    • “The Church’s holiness is also fostered in a special way by the manifold counsels which the Lord proposes to his disciples in the Gospel for them to observe. Towering among these counsels is that precious gift of divine grace given to some by the Father (cf. Mt 19:11; 1 Cor 7:7) to devote themselves to God alone more easily in virginity or celibacy… This perfect continence for love of the Kingdom of heaven has always been held in high esteem by the Church as a sign and stimulus of love, and as a singular source of spiritual fertility in the world” (Lumen gentium, 42; cf. Perfectae caritatis, 12). And, on celibacy specifically, cf. Vatican II’s Presbyterorum ordinis, 16 and Optatarn totius, 10.
  • However, both virginity and marriage are necessary for the growth of the Church, and both imply a specific calling from God:
    • “Celibacy is precisely a gift of the Spirit. A similar though different gift is contained in the vocation to true and faithful married love, directed towards procreation according to the flesh, in the very lofty context of the sacrament of Matrimony. It is obvious that this gift is fundamental for the building up of the great community of the Church, the people of God. But if this community wishes to respond fully to its vocation in Jesus Christ, there will also have to be realized in it, in the correct proportion, that other gift, the gift of celibacy ‘for the sake of the kingdom of heaven’” (John Paul II, Letter to all priests, 1979).

VIDEO COMMENTARY ON TODAY’S GOSPEL

TOPIC: ARE YOU GRATEFUL FOR YOUR MARRIAGE OR FOR YOUR SINGLE-BLESSEDNESS?

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus shows us the value of love in marriage despite the tensions that may constantly arise. This love can also find expression in one’s single blessedness. The rigid Jewish Law that Jesus seemed to defy with his relaxed interpretation riled the religious leaders of His time. Recall the picking of the grains of wheat by his disciples that was considered as work and prohibited on a Sabbath day, or their eating without washing their hands. However, when it came to life-long fidelity in marriage and celibacy for the sake of His heavenly kingdom, Jesus was immovable and uncompromising.

TOPIC 2: If you are called to the vocation of marriage, must you have a child to remain in marriage?

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