In today’s Gospel Our Lord teaches the indissolubility of marriage as something in God’s plan from the beginning. In the Old Testament and the New, when a man and a woman come together in marriage they become “one flesh”: each becomes a part of the other. Eve is fashioned from the side of Adam to teach this profound mystery where a man and a woman come together in a love of total mutual self-giving that reflects the inter-Personal love within the Most Holy Trinity: when Adam sees Eve for the first time he recognizes a part of himself, someone without which he would be incomplete, someone who was missing in his life.
For those called to marriage God has blessed two people with someone out there with whom they can be complete, be whole. He respects their freedom to enter into the marriage covenant with each other, and, for believers, promises to help them with the spiritual graces of the sacrament of matrimony. It is a big step not to be taken light, requiring preparation, but when that step is taken it will be a life-changing blessing for them and for everyone they love. Their parents wish them well as they start their new life together and, God-willing, become parents themselves. The beauty of marital love is why marriages in difficulty are so dramatic and tragic: something that is now “one flesh” is trying to pull itself apart. In the difficult moments it is important to remember not just the emotions of first love, but the fact that God has joined man and woman, and God will help them remain united; they just have to keep striving to seek each other’s good.
Let’s thank God today for the blessing of many happy marriages and families, and also ask him to strengthen and help marriages that are in difficulty.
Readings: Genesis 2:18–24; Psalm 128:1–6; Hebrews 2:9–11; Mark 10:2–16.