Looking at divorce from a purely Christian perspective, God does not want divorce. This is also the wording on the billboard put up on the Zebbug church parvis, as Malta seeks ways and means to introduce it. Our God is a God of Covenant and He is for Christians who make a covenant with him through his son Jesus Christ, both when a person becomes a true Christian and surrenders his life to His Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and when that person subsequently gets married.
These above two covenants are the two most powerful and important ones for the true Christian (the covenant with God and covenant with your partner in marriage).
It was God himself who made the first covenant with his church (the Body of Christ). God loves his church (his bride) for he is her bridegroom. In fact, the Bible says that when Jesus comes again he is coming for his spotless bride. God is against divorce, because as the Bible says, “what God has united let no man put asunder”.
However, this means that if the couple never decided to include God in their marriage or totally removed him after marriage, no matter how religious, pompous or glamorous the wedding and marriage ceremony were, God couldn’t be considered as having been part of that marriage. Even if all the archbishops of the world, or the Pope himself, who celebrated and prayed over this marriage, God was never concelebrating or anointing it. There are many instances where God was never included in the marriage package or removed altogether thereafter:
• marriages of convenience,
• marriages with the intention of living as two separate hearts (individuals) under the same roof,
• marriages between Christians and non-Christians.
• marriages to cover up family shame because of an unwanted pregnancy.
• marriages where the mother-in-law is the rule of law in the marriage
• marriages where abuses and excesses are the order of the day (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual violence)
• marriages based on purely sexual attraction alone.
Surely the above and many other examples (too numerous to cite) show that God was omitted from the marriage, let alone having had anything to do with uniting such marriages. In such cases a Christian marriage had never existed in the first place or brought to nothing. So under whichever guise one defines dissolution of marriage (separation, annulment or divorce), a Christian marriage calls for more than just a priest or pastor concelebrating but also the presence of God in the hearts and spirits of the couple. Marriage is a vow based on a covenant with God and partner. It is also an issue of the heart, for couples to be straight and OK with God, partner and themselves.
Otherwise, one is creating a hell in this world both for himself/herself, his/her partner and offspring. In a world that desperately seeks love, our love and intimacy as Christians may provide the strongest attraction to the non-Christian world. Jesus said, “All people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).
It is no wonder that people are asking for divorce because Christ’s love either was never part of the marriage, or else the ejector seat button was pressed on Him as the marriage nose-dived to the ground despite ‘attempts’ to repair the engine failure!
Anthony Zarb-Dimech
SLIEMA