Evangelizo

Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom, he again taught them.
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."

When, before his death and on the very threshold of the Paschal mystery, Christ prays, saying : « Holy Father, keep in your name all those you have given me, that they may be one as we are one » (Jn 17,11), he is also asking in a certain sense, and perhaps in a particularly special way, for the unity of married couples and families. He is praying for the unity of his disciples, for the unity of his Church. Indeed, the mystery of the Church is compared to a marriage by Saint Paul (Eph 5,32). And so the Church not only gives to families a special portion of her concern but she also considers the sacrament of marriage to be, after a fashion, her rôle model. In her love for Christ the Bridegoom, he who loved us to the death, the Church sees all those bridegrooms and their brides who have promised to love each other all their life long, even to death. And she thinks of it as her particular duty to protect this love, fidelity and sincerity, as well as all those other benefits that flow from it, both for the human person and society. It is, properly speaking, the family that gives life to society. And it is in the family that, through education, the very structure of humanity, of each individual, is formed in this world. In the Gospel... the Son speaks these words to the Father : « I have given them the words you gave me : they have received them... and have believed that it is you who sent me... All that is mine is yours and all that is yours is mine » (Jn 17, 8-10). Does not the echo of this dialogue resound in the hearts of people of every generation ? Do not these words constitute the very fabric of the lives and histories of every family and, through the family, of every person ?... « I pray for them... for all those you have given me, for they are yours » (v.9).

Opening homily for the Synod on Family life, 26/09/1980, §5

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 10:1-12.