Moses gave permission for a man to divorce his wife; however, Jesus declared:
Because of the hardness of your heart
(Moses) wrote you this commandment.
The Law had been given through Moses to prepare the People of Israel both
to receive and to embrace the Lord and
Saviour of mankind when He should come, and this they did, supremely through
the Virgin Mary of Nazareth. However, the
Israelite leaders, because of their wilful hardness of heart, refused to
acknowledge the Saviour sent by God, and consequently, the vast majority of the
people were not able to embrace or even recognize the Lord when He came.
Jesus, the Son-of-God-made-flesh was sent by His Father to live among God’s
Chosen People with the immediate aim of leading back to His Father those who
were wandering from the God they acknowledged but did not truly obey,
because of the dominion that Satan held over their lives. Jesus’ ultimate
purpose, however, was to call the whole of sinful mankind to the God they did
not yet know -- though He was the One God Who created them -- as to
their loving Father, by His (Jesus’)’re-making’ of them, through His Spirit, into
fully adopted children of God.
For this end, Jesus did not base His teaching on the Law of Moses; for --
although He did not deny the validity of the Law for those to whom it had been
given through Moses -- He nevertheless, deliberately chose to by-pass the
Mosaic Law by invoking the Father’s original law of creation for His,
Jesus’, disciples -- the new Children of God and His future Church -- the law
eternally enshrined in their original make-up, by recalling that:
From the beginning of creation. ‘God made them male and female’. Therefore,
a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two
shall become one flesh'. So they are no
longer two but one flesh.
He then answered in perfect fulness the Pharisees’ initial question about
the current standing of Moses permission for divorce contained in the Law:
What therefore God has joined together, let
not man separate.
We can see
clearly that Jesus had only one purpose in mind: to awaken and to save true
Children-of-God for His Father, and in fulfilment of this He showed
Himself adamant, admitting no compromises, even though Moses had set a
precedent. Jesus’ Gospel was not to be in
any way preparatory for something that might come later: His Gospel was and is
definitive, and its sole function was and is to form true children-of-God,
those whom the Holy Spirit would lead to believe in Jesus and then go on to guide them to love their heavenly
Father, as members of the mystical Body of Jesus; that is, as adopted children nourished
by the teaching, and by the very Body and Blood, of the Father’s only-begotten Son-made-flesh. Jesus could not envisage spurious children-of-God:
only those given to Himself by the Father and formed according to His
Gospel teaching by His gift of the Holy Spirit, would be able and fit to
follow Jesus into the kingdom of heaven and, indeed, into the very presence of His
and their heavenly Father
This attitude and purpose of Jesus was made devastatingly clear by His
subsequent words which removed any possibility of misunderstanding or
prevarication concerning the supremacy of divine truth with regard to
political, social, or personal, expediency:
Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against
her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.
Those words were spoken to His disciples in private: they were the ones
who would teach Jesus’ future disciples after He had gone, and there had to be
no hesitancy or uncertainty over a matter of such importance, a matter that so
clearly brings mankind’s weakness into possible confrontation with the
exigencies of fellowship with God, as members of the Body of Christ, Who is Himself
bonded as One in union with the Father, by the truth and love of their most
Holy Spirit.
Moses had allowed the Jews a certain relaxation because they had been
subject to a Law which was meant to help them become aware of their own sinfulness
and frailties and acknowledge their need of a Saviour; and in fulfilling such a
function the Law allowed a degree of licence while bestowing a measure of holiness. The Gospel, however, is concerned with the
ultimate degrees of holiness, because it was and is meant to bring believers
into union with Jesus, and into the family of the heavenly Father as His truly-adopted-children-in-Jesus,
by the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. Likewise,
the fullness of the Holy Spirit could only be given to God’s Church in order to
protect and promote the fullness of truth in all its purity: for only such
fullness and purity of truth could lead human beings to an appreciation of, and
gradual sharing in, the fullness of heavenly glory which is divine
charity. Previously, under the Mosaic
dispensation, certain compromises could be made for human weakness and
ignorance, since the Law was still preparatory, what would be definitive was yet
to come. The Gospel dispensation,
however, is to be the final and immediate preparation for fellowship with
God. Under the Gospel law, never would believers
in Jesus work alone, for they would always be endowed with, empowered and
enlightened by, the Spirit of Jesus, the Spirit of Holiness, and thus enabled
to walk the ways of holiness leading into the presence of Him Whom Jesus
addressed in prayer as ‘Holy Father’. It
is for such reasons that Jesus commanded:
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly
Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48)
People of God, today we are given an opportunity to appreciate something
of the divide that many are continually attempting to set up between our modern
Church and the intention and will of Jesus.
Today, emphasis is placed, so often, on numbers and ‘compassion’. Teaching, it is claimed, has to be adapted in
order to bring more people into our churches; it should be relaxed, not only in
unessential details of traditional Church law and discipline, but even in
matters of doctrine, so that the Church doctrine might be more easily
understood, and more accessible and welcoming to modern attitudes and mores.
This emphasis on numbers, this desire for popularity -- which is the true
project modern ’compassion’ pleaders have in mind -- is far different from
Jesus’ attitude with regard to those who thought His doctrine unacceptable:
Therefore, many of His disciples, when they heard this, said,
"This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?" (John 6:60)
After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with
Him. So Jesus said to the Twelve,
"Do you want to go away as well?" Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. (John 6:66-68)
The Gospel message of salvation is, indeed, for the whole of mankind, but
the mystery of human freedom is still relevant.
In Jesus’ own time and among Jesus’ own native people only a relatively small
number accepted Him, and so no one knows, nor can anyone ever know, how many
will ultimately respond positively to God’s offer of salvation. Therefore, the attention of the Church
should, must, always be turned to authentic
doctrine, rightly understood: Jesus’ teaching, as Jesus meant it then, and
as Jesus wills it to be heard and understood by mankind today. Teaching can never be undermined by thoughts
and fears about numbers nor must it ever be subjected to the prevalent
preconceptions, prejudices and passions, of modern society. Gospel truth has always to be the pure air we
breathe not mere words to be argued about; it is not a commodity put at our
disposal, to be watered down, topped up, coloured or flavoured, as we think
best suited to current times and requirements.
Mother Church deals – so to speak – in God’s teaching, she dispenses God’s
grace; no mere men, no individuals however authoritative, can ‘fiddle’ with
what is not theirs, and what is for all men of all times.
There is only one Who can guide us into the fullness of Gospel truth: the
Holy Spirit bequeathed to His Church and to be poured out on His Body, by
Jesus. The Good News of Jesus was first
proclaimed by His own voice and understood by His own divinely-human mind; no
merely human mind is either able to adequately understand its fullness or profundity,
or to appreciate its wisdom and beauty; and that is why He gave His Holy Spirit
to guide His Church into all truth:
When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all the truth;
for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will
speak; and He will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take what is
Mine and declare it to you. All that the
Father has is Mine; therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it
to you. (John 16:13-15)
Therefore, the Gospel message can only be rightly understood and
proclaimed by those imbued and endowed by the Holy Spirit: is not to be grasped
like some apple from a tree by intellectual prowess. Gospel Wisdom can only be experienced,
gradually known, and most humbly loved; and, this can best come about in the
life of the Church which we are called to serve: above all, by serving the Lord
Jesus Himself, in and through her, by faithful obedience and humble perseverance,
in love. There are, alas, far too many in positions of prominence whose primary
concern seems to be that they should be able to make their own mark, with the
result that they are always seeking to adapt what has been handed down over
centuries in order to demonstrate their own gifts by attempts to popularize and
debase the straight and narrow, the light of life, and the gift of the
Spirit. They would have the Body and
Blood available like French fries and Coca Cola; heaven would be easily
accessible to all, indeed, it would be unavoidable, since for them, hell would
no longer exist, being totally out of consideration in their system. God, however, might prove a problem for them,
since He twice left the Jewish Temple because of the human sinfulness of
faithless guides and pastors.
People of God, the Church of Christ, our Mother Church, can never be diverted from her purpose, because she is protected by the promise of Jesus and His gift of the Spirit. But the work of the Church can be thwarted for a time, and that is why the Spirit -- Who leads men and women of good will towards Jesus’ heavenly promise -- also needs men and women of good will to defend and extend the Church. Let us, therefore, pray for Mother Church, let us love the beauty of her God-gifted truth and the splendour of His grace at work in her. Let us disdain the tawdry presentations of those who offer us what is cheap and worldly; for that heavenly promise made to us by Jesus is beautiful beyond human measure, and was won for us at the cost of His most Precious Blood.
