Matrimony

At times we hear that Catholics should “get off their high horse” regarding marriage because we place too much importance on things that are not a matter of salvation.  After all, people make mistakes.

When Jesus was teaching the crowds about marriage, he once again elevated it to the level of a Sacrament – just as God had done in Genesis between Adam and Eve.  According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "by its very nature the institution of marriage and married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring, and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory" (CCC 1652).  Whereas others may see marriage as a mere romantic union or contract – a Catholic marriage is a covenant.

In Malachi 2:16, God says “I hate divorce.”  This sounds rather harsh, but it emphasizes the fact that matrimony is ordained by of God.  The Scriptures tell us that Jesus, the Bridegroom and his Church, his Bride, are inseparable.  Similarly, a husband and wife are inseparable because this was God’s divine plan from the beginning.

In Matt 19:3-10, the Pharisees, who were always looking for an opportunity to trick Jesus, asked him if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause because of the Mosaic Law allowing it.  Jesus answered, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' 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, no human being must separate.”

He went on to say, “Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, whoever divorces his wife (unless the marriage is unlawful) and marries another commits adultery.”

Unlike a civil divorce, which is the dissolution of a civil contract, a marriage in the eyes of God is indissoluble.  Contrary to what some may think, anannulment is not a “Catholic divorce.”  And, unlike a civil divorce, an annulment or Declaration of Nullity, is a decree stating that a sacramental marriage never took place.  It is not the ending of a marriage but an acknowledgement that there was no Sacrament of Matrimony from the very beginning of the union.