GENERAL AUDIENCE
Wednesday, 5 September 1979
1. For some time now preparations have been under way for the next ordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which will be held in Rome in the autumn of next year. The theme of the Synod: “De muneribus familiae christianae” (The duties of the Christian family) focuses our attention on that community of human and Christian life which from the beginning is fundamental. It was precisely this expression “from the beginning” that the Lord Jesus used in the conversation on marriage reported in the Gospel of Saint Matthew and in that of Saint Mark. We wish to ask ourselves what this word “beginning” means. We also wish to clarify why Christ appeals to the “beginning” precisely in that circumstance, and therefore we propose a more precise analysis of the relevant text of Sacred Scripture.
2. Twice, during the conversation with the Pharisees who put to him the question of the indissolubility of marriage, Jesus Christ referred to the “beginning”. The conversation went as follows: “…some Pharisees came up to him to test him and asked: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?”. And he answered: “Have you not read that the Creator from the beginning made them male and female and said: For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate”. They objected: “Why then did Moses command that a certificate of divorce be given her and that she be sent away?”. Jesus answered them: “For the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Mt 19:3ff.; cf. Mk 10:2ff.).
Christ does not accept the discussion at the level on which his questioners try to place it; in a certain sense he does not approve of the dimension they sought to give the problem. He avoids becoming entangled in juridical and casuistic controversies; instead he appeals twice to the “beginning”. In doing so, he refers clearly to the relevant words of the Book of Genesis, which his questioners also know by heart. From those words of the most ancient revelation Christ draws his conclusion, and the conversation ends.
3. “Beginning” therefore means what the Book of Genesis speaks about. It is thus Genesis 1:27 that Christ quotes, in summary form: “The Creator from the beginning made them male and female”, while the complete original passage reads literally: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them”. The Master then appeals to Genesis 2:24: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”. By quoting these words almost “in extenso”, in full, Christ gives them an even more explicit normative meaning (since one might suppose that in the Book of Genesis they sound like statements of fact: “he shall leave… he shall be joined… they shall become one flesh”). The normative meaning is plausible inasmuch as Christ does not limit himself to the quotation alone, but adds: “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate”. That “let no man separate” is decisive. In the light of this word of Christ, Genesis 2:24 sets forth the principle of the unity and indissolubility of marriage as the very content of the word of God, expressed in the most ancient revelation.
4. At this point one might maintain that the matter is settled, that the words of Jesus Christ confirm the eternal law formulated and instituted by God from the “beginning”, as the creation of man. It might also seem that the Master, in confirming this primordial law of the Creator, does nothing but establish exclusively its own normative sense, appealing to the very authority of the first Lawgiver. Yet that significant expression “from the beginning”, repeated twice, clearly leads his questioners to reflect on the way in which, in the mystery of creation, man was formed precisely as “male and female”, so as to understand correctly the normative sense of the words of Genesis. And this is no less valid for today's questioners than it was for those of that time. Therefore, in the present study, taking all this into account, we must place ourselves precisely in the position of Christ's questioners today.
5. During the Wednesday reflections that follow, at the general audiences, we shall try, as today's questioners of Christ, to dwell at greater length on the words of Saint Matthew (Mt 19:3ff.). In order to respond to the indication Christ enclosed in them, we shall try to make our way towards that “beginning” to which he referred in so significant a manner; and thus we shall follow from afar the great work which the participants in the next Synod of Bishops are undertaking on this theme at this very moment. Together with them, numerous groups of pastors and lay people are taking part, who feel particularly responsible for the tasks that Christ sets before marriage and the Christian family; the tasks he has always set, and sets also in our age, in the contemporary world.
The cycle of reflections we begin today, with the intention of continuing it during the Wednesday meetings that follow, also has among its aims that of accompanying, from afar as it were, the preparatory work for the Synod, without however touching its theme directly, but turning our attention to the deep roots from which this theme springs.
