Archive for month: May, 2026
The Garden and the Sanctuary: The Genesis of Marriage
Happy Sunday! As we continue our reflections on marriage, we need to go back to Genesis to
understand the foundations of marriage as God intended. Keeping in mind that the beauty of
marriage is woven into creation itself, we can note the following:
- When God made Adam, he literally “made” or “formed” him ( , ר ַצָיto form) (Gen. 2:7).
God made Adam with a purpose, and that purpose is to “tend” ( , ד ַב ָעabad) and
“keep” ( , ר ַמ ָשshamar) the garden (Gen. 2:15). These words are priestly terms (e.g.
Numbers 3 and 18) and speak to how a priest is to care for the sanctuary of God that
has been entrusted to him. We are meant to understand, therefore, that Adam is a
priest-figure in the eyes of God and that he is meant to care for that which is entrusted
to him as if it were the sanctuary of God. - God notes, however, that it is not good for Adam to be alone (Gen. 2:18). God does not
intend for Adam to undertake this mission alone, especially since the animals God has
created prove to be unsuitable partners for Adam in the fulfillment of his mission. For
this reason, God casts Adam in a deep sleep and draws the suitable partner from
Adam himself. - God, however, does not make this partner he has envisioned for Adam. God, rather,
builds ( , הָנ ָבbanah) this partner for Adam (Gen. 2:22). The symbolism here is clear:
God is building a personified sanctuary to be Adam’s partner. This is the one who is to
receive Adam, to be a sanctuary for his heart, and the one who is to support him in his
mission. Adam, for his part, must never take her for granted. He is to receive her as the
gift she is and care for her as one who is entrusted to him. This mutual gift of self will
then result in man and woman participating in God’s own power through the act of
creation itself. - This mutual self-giving by which Adam and Eve lay down their lives for each other is
the foundation of marriage itself. Marriage is not something we enter into for our own
pleasure: it is something we are moved to enter into through our own self-gift. This is
why Adam “recognizes” Eve by saying here at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my
flesh (Gen. 2:23).
With all of this in mind, we can begin to see why this would be elevated to the level of a
Sacrament by Christ. By living the foundation of marriage in the world, a married couple can
become, by the grace of the Sacrament, a powerful sign for the Truth and Beauty of marriage
and God’s love for every human person. Stay tuned for more!
Marriage: More Than a Contract, A Sacred Covenant
Happy Sunday! As we continue our reflections on marriage, we are going to move to the Gospel of
Mark to see what Christ teaches concerning marriage, and then we will look at how it becomes a
Sacrament in the Gospel of John. In Mark 10, we read the following:
The Pharisees approached and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were
testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses
permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the
hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation,
‘God made them male and female. 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.” In the house the disciples
again questioned him about this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits
adultery.”
There are several key points here we should pay attention to:
Why the connection between divorce and adultery? It is because marriage is more than
a contract. Marriage is a covenant, that is, a complete self-gift for the good of the other.
This is why divorce is not meant to be an option in the mind of God. To give one’s word
one moment and try to nullify it the next is not marriage. Marriage means that we live up
to our marriage vows.
With that being said, I would like to add a clarification. Marriage is meant to be permanent, but that
doesn’t mean that every marriage is perfect. There are marriages where violence, abuse, and
manipulation are lived experiences. Christ’s teaching does NOT mean that the victims are stuck.
It means, rather, that one has to investigate to see what problems existed before and after the
marriage (meaning that the gift of the spouse’s word was invalid). This is why we have the
annulment process as Catholics: we seek to be faithful to Christ’s own teaching.
Divorce was allowed under the Mosaic Law due to the “hardness of hearts” instead of
the plan of God. This is why the Church does not support divorce and always supports
marriage as permanent.
In marriage, God joins the couple. This is not a mere human act that can be dissolved by
another human act. To enter into marriage requires a divine action, and this divine action
means that God is intimately involved in marriage.
