Divorce

Divorce is a human law with the purpose of legally separating what is already separated in fact. It is not contrary to God’s law, since it merely reforms what humans have stipulated and is applicable only in cases in which the divine law has not been taken into account. If it were contrary to the divine law, the Church itself would have to consider as transgressors those of its leaders, who by their own authority and in the name of religion have imposed divorce on  more than  one occasion: a double transgression therefore, since it is practiced only with material interests in mind and not to satisfy the law of love.

However, Jesus himself did  not  consecrate the  absolute indissolubility of marriage. Did he not say, “It was because of the hardness of your hearts that Moses permitted you to divorce your wives?” This means that, since the time of Moses, separation might have been necessary when mutual affection was no longer the sole objective of marriage. Jesus adds, however, “… but in the beginning it was not like that,” which means that at the origin of humankind, when people were not yet perverted by selfishness and pride, but lived according to God’s law, unions were based on reciprocal sympathy39 and not on vanity or ambition; thus, there was no room for divorce.

Jesus goes even further and specifies  the case in which divorce can have a place: adultery. Now, there is no adultery where sincere mutual affection reigns. It is true that he prohibits any man from marrying a divorced woman, but one must keep in mind the customs and character of the people in those times. In cases of adultery, the Mosaic Law prescribed stoning. Jesus wanted to abolish a barbaric custom; hence, a penalty was needed, and he found it in the disgrace attached to the prohibition of a second marriage. It was in some ways one civil law replacing another civil law, but which, like all laws of such nature, had to endure the test of time.