Father Thomas Reese: 'What God has joined together ...'

[Fish and Bread]

Link:

'What God has joined together ...'

Why not just recognize that lifelong marriage is the ideal, but that the real world sometimes makes a hash of ideals, and that remarriage after a divorce often represents people doing the best they can with what they are given?

I don't agree with barring anyone from the communion table unless they are profaning the sacrament by treating it irreverently.

The Gifts of God for the People of God.

We're all children of God. He welcomes us all. Ultimate love is all-inclusive.

 

[Fantine]

One can wonder whether Jesus would say a lot of the things he said 2000 years ago--regarding women, for example.

 

[ButchCassidy]

Tough situation. We'd have to admit Jesus was wrong? We'd have to admit we are wrong? One of us is wrong and I'm trying to work it out with fear and trembling.

 

[Godlovesmetwo]

I don't agree with barring anyone from the communion table unless they are profaning the sacrament by treating it irreverently.

makes sense to me too.

 

[Martinius]

I will go out on a limb and say that God does not "join" two people in marriage. The couple and the community do that. That is something we see in many faiths. Even in Catholicism, for many centuries marriage was not a sacrament, and weddings that occurred without a Church ceremony or a priest were still considered valid.

I think Reese makes some valid points about literal interpretations of scripture and about the circumstances of the time. There is no doubt that Jesus talked about marriage as a natural and common part of society, but he also did not make it a necessary condition for the faithful. The woman at the well was married several times and currently "living in sin", yet Jesus did not reject her, but instead counseled her and apparently forgave her. Nor is there any indication that Jesus rejected anyone from discipleship for being divorced and remarried. As we can see in the Gospels, he consistently welcomed the most despised outcasts of humanity into the Kingdom.

 

[Martinius]

Sorry, double post.