In these last days, as first reading, we have heard the letter of St James, a pastoral letter, full of exhortations to live an authentic Christian life. Today’s reading would be good for the season of Advent: indeed it speaks of a Judge and a judgment, of patience, of perseverance. It concludes with an invitation to avoid swearing: we find an almost identical sentence in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:33-37). The oath, calling God as a witness, pushes him, the Judge, to anticipate the judgment: then perhaps it is better to wait! I would like to emphasize just one word that will also help us understand today’s Gospel better. When the apostle James speaks of the prophets, he mentions them as an example of suffering and patience. In reality, the word translated as “patience” (in Greek μακροθυμία) actually means “greatness of mind, heart, soul”. Mind, heart, soul are the desire, the mentality, the way of thinking, of relating with others, the attitude of relationship and dialogue. The invitation is therefore to have a great heart, an open mind, a broad vision, with great prospects and great expectations, like the prophets. We need to be capable to go beyond appearance.

It is necessary to have a broad vision, a μακροθυμία, to understand and announce today’s Gospel. The risk is to use it as a pretext to condemn those who have had misadventures in their marriage and find themselves in situations that we could identify as morally irregular.

The Pharisees go to Jesus to ask him if it is lawful to divorce. The law of Moses allowed the divorce. The masters of Israel debated whether one could send one’s wife away only in case of adultery (lax movement) or whether she could be sent away only because she was unable to cook (intransigent movement). With his answer, Jesus carefully avoids entering into the rules of Pharisaic case system and brings the question back to heart: human being have lost sight of the Father’s plan or refused to follow it.

Moses’ law on divorce is just a concession to meet the hard heart, the hard head of human being. Jesus did not come to change the law but to change hearts. If hearts are transformed by the presence of God in the life of every person, they become capable of dialogue, forgiveness, understanding. Furthermore, human love between a man and a woman is transformed into a love capable of giving one’s life for the other.

Christ wants to restore humanity to the holiness of his origins, to God’s plan for man and woman. Man and woman were wanted by God in their diversity to be “one flesh”. God has placed a certain similarity to him in the male and another similarity in the female. Man and woman are images of God, not of the same reality as God. In the Bible we find many characteristics of God typical of men: strength, demands but we also find typical female images of God: welcome, consolation, nourishment. I like an example that I found in some notes of my formation time: it is as if God had carved two statues that represent Him, one with only the right arm and the other with only the left arm. Both of them look like him but for different characteristics. In this way the two images, joining together, give a more complete image of God.

You understand why this Gospel cannot be read in a moralistic key. There is a project, an ideal but not all the men and women of this world, even Christians, have understood it; may be they have forgotten it, may be they had never known it. The sacrament of Marriage gives a particular grace for spouses, but if they do not care and ignore God, you understand how difficult it is for them to be faithful to the marriage declaration of consent: “I promise to be faithful to you, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, to love you and to honor you all the days of my life”.

Have you heard about Amoris Lætitia? It is an apostolic exhortation written by Pope Francis following the Synod on the family, a document wrongly criticized by the conservative wing of the Church. There are two aspects that I would like to suggest:

1. “… in no way must the Church desist from proposing the full ideal of marriage, God’s plan in all its grandeur … To show understanding in the face of exceptional situations never implies dimming the light of the fuller ideal, or proposing less than what Jesus offers to the human being. Today, more important than the pastoral care of failures is the pastoral effort to strengthen marriages and thus to prevent their breakdown.” (AL 307)
2. “… Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, “always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud of the street”. The Church’s pastors, in proposing to the faithful the full ideal of the Gospel and the Church’s teaching, must also help them to treat the weak with compassion, avoiding aggravation or unduly harsh or hasty judgements. The Gospel itself tells us not to judge or condemn.”

Each of us knows particular, complicated marriage situations in our family, among our friends. Maybe someone has experienced marriage failures first-hand. Let us make these people feel all our closeness without any judgment and let us pray for them.

May the Word of God be our light and our salvation!