The Bizarro world is a fictional planet that arrived on the scene of comic books in the 1960s. In the Bizarro world everything was the opposite of our planet. When I reflect on today’s Gospel reading, I think of this Bizarro world. Because of original sin, humanity lived in a bizarro world. Our world was not meant to be like this from the beginning. The orderly world that God created was turned upside down by original sin.
In today’s Gospel reading we learn that the Pharisees tried to trap the Lord with a question on divorce. They knew that divorce had been allowed for twelve centuries since the time of Moses. By asking the Lord if it was lawful for a husband to divorce his wife, what they were really and maliciously asking him was whether divorce was permissible at all.
The Lord puts the ball back in their court by asking them a question. He asks them, what was Moses' commandment on the matter. The Lord knew that Moses had not taught a commandment on divorce. The Law of Moses took for granted the possibility of a husband being able to dismiss his wife by writing a bill of divorce. The purpose of this provision was not to authorize divorce but to give the woman freedom to marry another man in a society where it was unthinkable for a woman to live on her own.
The Lord explains the reason why Moses did that. Moses did that because men were hard-hearted, which led them to dissolve their marriages. This hard-heartedness was the stubborn refusal to yield to God and His ways. No doubt humanity lived in the bizarro world, opposite of God’s intention.
After the Lord’s explanation, he then proceeds to give them the commandment about divorce. This commandment is found in the book of Genesis. The Lord first quotes a verse from the first creation story, "God made them male and female" (1:27). He then quotes another verse from the second creation story, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh” (2:24). Flesh in the Bible is not only the physical body but the entire human being. When a man and a woman become one flesh, they merge into a personal union at the deepest level of their being.
By connecting these two verses from the two stories of the creation of man and woman in Genesis, the Lord teaches that the communion of love between husband and wife is a sign that points to the ultimate purpose God has in creating humanity in his image.
The Lord then concludes by saying that, “What God has joined together, no human being must separate” (Mark 10:9). The book of Genesis had already implied that marriage was not simply a human convention, but a bond made by God himself. The presence of God in a marriage is what makes it sacred. Any sin that destroys the unity of marriage ensured by God himself, makes God extremely angry.
With his teaching, the Lord takes the subject of marriage to a higher level. By referring to the orderly world before original sin, the Lord is teaching that God's original plan was once again the standard for marriage and human relationships. Goodbye, Bizarro world.
The reason why this new commandment came into effect at that time was because the Lord had come to free us from the hardness of heart, to free us from sin. The Lord made a new humanity possible. A fallen, sinful humanity was left behind. And a redeemed humanity began to be possible.
St. Paul speaks of marriage as a mystery. The union of husband and wife is a sign that points to the mystery of God himself and to our vocation to live in communion with God. Let us humbly ask the Lord to give us his grace to understand the deep meaning of human love, which prepares us to share in the communion of love at the heart of the Holy Trinity.