Marriage
and Social Justice: Reflections for the
Synod on the Family
“Jesus
had now finished what he wanted to say, and he left Galilee and came into the
part of Judaea which is on the far side of the Jordan. Large crowds followed him and he healed them there.
“Some
Pharisees approached him, and to test him they said, ‘Is it against the Law for
a man to divorce his wife on any pretext whatever?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that the
creator from the beginning made them male and female and that he said: This is why a man must leave father and
mother, and cling to his wife, and the two become one body? They are no longer two, therefore, but one
body. So then, what God has united, man
must not divide.’
“They
said to him, ‘Then why did Moses command that a writ of dismissal should be
given in cases of divorce?’ ‘It was
because you were unteachable,’ he said, ‘that Moses allowed you to divorce your
wives, but it was not like this from the beginning. Now I say this to you: the man who divorces his wife – I am not
speaking of immorality – and marries another, is guilty of adultery.’” (Matt. 19: 1-9)
This text is the source of the Church’s
teaching and constant theological reflection on the sacrament of marriage. The words of Jesus contain for us normative
teaching for our lives, and this text provides us with two fundamentally
important ideas for us to consider:
- The Lord Jesus calls us to live by the
ideal image of marriage, and that ideal is patterned on our understanding
of God and God’s relationship to us.
- The
fact that this teaching is directed to men divorcing their wives provides
us with an important aspect of marriage as related to social justice that
we must consider.
- The ideal of marriage that Jesus proposes
is rooted in the very order of creation.
The words Jesus quotes are from the creation story of the Book of
Genesis, words that will be used to relate God’s own understanding of His
relationship to His people. Throughout
the Hebrew Scriptures we find God being likened to the bridegroom in relationship
to His people Israel, Israel being seen as the bride of God. The very notion of covenant is one that
is rooted not in property contract, but rather in contract that binds
persons to one another.
God has declared
throughout the Hebrew Scriptures that He will be forever faithful to His bride
Israel. Even if Israel should break
covenant with God, God would remain faithful.
In fact, the infidelity to the covenant of God is often referred to as
adultery in the Hebrew Scriptures. All
sin, therefore, represents an adulterous act against our God. As a result, our marriage relationships need
to be seen in this ideal light. We are
called to be like God – unswervingly faithful to our spouse within a
relationship where the very idea of divorce is unthinkable. This is the ideal to which we are called, for
our marriages are an image, reflection, and an imitation of the relationship
that God has with each one of us personally and communally as a people.
- It is noteworthy, however, to note the
fact that the command of Jesus, which was the command of God from the
beginning, is addressed to men.
Only men had the ability to apply for and receive a writ of
divorce. Women did not have any
such recourse. This arrangement
reflects social realities where men only were considered citizens, and
thus only men could receive the benefit of Law. Women, children, and slaves received
protection from the Law only by being connected to a man who was a
citizen. As a girl, a woman was
protected by being connected to the household of her father, and so
marriage was vitally important for women in order to receive protection
from the new man who would take her father’s place in being her legal
protector.
If a woman became
unattached to a man through death or divorce, this represented a very
precarious situation for her and her children.
They no longer had legal protection in society. They were vulnerable, and often faced dire
poverty and the temptation to sin in order to provide for herself and her
children. For this reason God commands
Israel to protect widows, as it was a requirement of God to protect the most
vulnerable in society.
Consequently,
divorce represented an injustice to women and to any children of the
marriage. The divorced woman had no
recourse. She was an outcast in
society. She was exposed to the Law, for
it did not protect her in this society.
Not only did divorce represent a departure from the ideal as an image of
God’s relationship to us, it also represented an injustice to the woman and
children who now do not have any protection in society.
The woman
abandoned by her spouse finds poignant expression in the Book of Lamentations,
where Israel reflects on her perceived abandonment by God. It is an utterly dire situation. The prophet could describe it with such vivid
detail because it was the experience of a woman in society abandoned by her
spouse.
Today, our
situation is somewhat different. Women
do have legal protection and status in society in their own right; so do
children. Women can file for and receive
a writ of divorce. However, it is still
the case today that divorce still leaves women extremely vulnerable in
society. Women are the ones still likely
to be the ones to raise the children alone and without a partner. While women have greater opportunities in the
workforce, they still make less than men for the same work, and many women are
forced into minimum wage jobs to provide for herself and her children.
We are still
called by the Lord Jesus to live by the ideal of marriage and to heed the
injustice that happens with divorce. But
this is not all. We must still deal with
the reality of divorce and how we might respond to the brokenness in a way that
leads us back to the ideal gradually and pastorally. God does not abandon us in our frail
conditions, and as people of God we must not abandon people in their broken
conditions. We must ever reflect on how
we can restore what has been broken and regain the ideal to which we are
called.
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