The Permanence of Matrimony
When Jesus came, he elevated matrimony to the same
status it had originally possessed between Adam and Eve—the status of a
sacrament. Thus, any valid marriage between two baptized people is a sacramental
marriage and, once consummated, cannot be dissolved. Jesus, therefore,
taught that if anyone so married divorces and remarries, that person is
living in perpetual adultery, a state of mortal sin.
He said, "Every one who divorces his wife and marries
another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her
husband commits adultery" (Luke 16:18; cf. Mark 10:11–12).
Paul was equally insistent on this fact, declaring,
"Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives.
. . . Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another
man while her husband is alive" (Rom. 7:2–3).
This applied, of course, only to sacramental marriages—those
between baptized people. For marriages involving an unbaptized party, a
different rule applied (1 Cor. 7:12–15).
In the midst of the Greco-Roman culture, which
allowed for easy divorce and remarriage, the early Church Fathers proclaimed
Christ’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage—just as the Catholic
Church does today in our modern, secular, easy-divorce culture (cf. Catechism
of the Catholic Church 1614–1615). Other denominations have modified
their teachings to accommodate the pro-divorce ethos that dominates modern
culture, but the Catholic Church preserves the teaching of Jesus and the
early Christians.
While their ex-spouses are alive, the only time
that a baptized couple can remarry after divorce is when a valid sacramental
marriage never existed in the first place. For example, for a marriage
to be contracted, the two parties must exchange valid matrimonial consent.
If they do not, the marriage is null. If the competent authority (a diocesan
marriage tribunal) establishes this fact, a decree of nullity (commonly
called an annulment) can be granted, and the parties are free to remarry
(CCC 1629). In this case there is no divorce followed by remarriage in
God’s eyes because there was no marriage before God in the first
place, merely a marriage in the eyes of men.
If, however, the parties are genuinely and sacramentally
married, then, while in some cases there may be good reasons for them to
live apart and even to obtain a legal separation, in God’s eyes they are
not free to remarry (CCC 1649).
This is not a commandment of men, but one that
comes directly from Jesus Christ. As Paul said, "To the married I give
charge, not I but the Lord, that the wife should not separate from
her husband (but if she does, let her remain single or else be reconciled
to her husband)—and that the husband should not divorce his wife" (1 Cor.
7:10-11).
Fortunately, God will ensure that the sacramentally
married have the grace necessary to live out their marriage vows and either
stay married or live continently. The sacrament of matrimony itself gives
this grace. Whenever we face a trial, God ensures that we will have the
grace we need. As Paul elsewhere says, "No temptation has overtaken you
that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be
tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide
the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it" (1 Cor. 10:13).
As the following quotations from the early Church
Fathers illustrate, they also recognized the seriousness of Christ’s teaching
regarding the indissolubility of marriage.
Hermas
"What then shall the husband do, if the wife continue
in this disposition [adultery]? Let him divorce her, and let the husband
remain single. But if he divorce his wife and marry another, he too commits
adultery" (The Shepherd 4:1:6 [A.D. 80]).
Justin Martyr
"In regard to chastity, [Jesus] has this to say:
‘If anyone look with lust at a woman, he has already before God committed
adultery in his heart.’ And, ‘Whoever marries a woman who has been divorced
from another husband, commits adultery.’ According to our Teacher, just
as they are sinners who contract a second marriage, even though it be in
accord with human law, so also are they sinners who look with lustful desire
at a woman. He repudiates not only one who actually commits adultery, but
even one who wishes to do so; for not only our actions are manifest to
God, but even our thoughts" (First Apology 15 [A.D. 151]).
Clement of Alexandria
"That Scripture counsels marriage, however, and
never allows any release from the union, is expressly contained in the
law: ‘You shall not divorce a wife, except for reason of immorality.’ And
it regards as adultery the marriage of a spouse, while the one from whom
a separation was made is still alive. ‘Whoever takes a divorced woman as
wife commits adultery,’ it says; for ‘if anyone divorce his wife, he debauches
her’; that is, he compels her to commit adultery. And not only does he
that divorces her become the cause of this, but also he that takes the
woman and gives her the opportunity of sinning; for if he did not take
her, she would return to her husband" (Miscellanies 2:23:145:3 [A.D.
208]).
Origen
"Just as a woman is an adulteress, even though
she seem to be married to a man, while a former husband yet lives, so also
the man who seems to marry her who has been divorced does not marry her,
but, according to the declaration of our Savior, he commits adultery with
her" (Commentaries on Matthew 14:24 [A.D. 248]).
Council of Elvira
"Likewise, women who have left their husbands for
no prior cause and have joined themselves with others, may not even at
death receive Communion" (Canon 8 [A.D. 300]).
...
"Likewise, a woman of the faith [i.e., a baptized
person] who has left an adulterous husband of the faith and marries another,
her marrying in this manner is prohibited. If she has so married, she may
not receive Communion—unless he that she has left has since departed from
this world" (Canon 9).
"If she whom a catechumen [an unbaptized person
studying the faith] has left shall have married a husband, she is able
to be admitted to the fountain of baptism. This shall also be observed
in the instance where it is the woman who is the catechumen. But if a woman
of the faithful is taken in marriage by a man who left an innocent wife,
and if she knew that he had a wife whom he had left without cause, it is
determined that Communion is not to be given to her even at death" (Canon
10).
Basil the Great
"A man who marries after another man’s wife has
been taken away from him will be charged with adultery in the case of the
first woman; but in the case of the second he will be guiltless" (Second
Canonical Letter to Amphilochius 199:37 [A.D. 375]).
Ambrose of Milan
"No one is permitted to know a woman other than
his wife. The marital right is given you for this reason: lest you fall
into the snare and sin with a strange woman. ‘If you are bound to a wife
do not seek a divorce’; for you are not permitted, while your wife lives,
to marry another" (Abraham 1:7:59 [A.D. 387]).
"You dismiss your wife, therefore, as if by right
and without being charged with wrongdoing; and you suppose it is proper
for you to do so because no human law forbids it; but divine law forbids
it. Anyone who obeys men ought to stand in awe of God. Hear the law of
the Lord, which even they who propose our laws must obey: ‘What God has
joined together let no man put asunder’" (Commentary on Luke 8:5
[A.D. 389]).
Jerome
"Do not tell me about the violence of the ravisher,
about the persuasiveness of a mother, about the authority of a father,
about the influence of relatives, about the intrigues and insolence of
servants, or about household [financial] losses. So long as a husband lives,
be he adulterer, be he sodomite, be he addicted to every kind of vice,
if she left him on account of his crimes, he is her husband still and she
may not take another" (Letters 55:3 [A.D. 396]).
"Wherever there is fornication and a suspicion
of fornication, a wife is freely dismissed. Because it is always possible
that someone may calumniate the innocent and, for the sake of a second
joining in marriage, act in criminal fashion against the first, it is commanded
that when the first wife is dismissed, a second may not be taken while
the first lives" (Commentaries on Matthew 3:19:9 [A.D. 398]).
Pope Innocent I
"[T]he practice is observed by all of regarding
as an adulteress a woman who marries a second time while her husband yet
lives, and permission to do penance is not granted her until one of them
is dead" (Letters 2:13:15 [A.D. 408]).
Augustine
"Neither can it rightly be held that a husband
who dismisses his wife because of fornication and marries another does
not commit adultery. For there is also adultery on the part of those who,
after the repudiation of their former wives because of fornication, marry
others. This adultery, nevertheless, is certainly less serious than that
of men who dismiss their wives for reasons other than fornication and take
other wives. Therefore, when we say: ‘Whoever marries a woman dismissed
by her husband for reason other than fornication commits adultery,’ undoubtedly
we speak the truth. But we do not thereby acquit of this crime the man
who marries a woman who was dismissed because of fornication. We do not
doubt in the least that both are adulterers. We do indeed pronounce him
an adulterer who dismissed his wife for cause other than fornication and
marries another, nor do we thereby defend from the taint of this sin the
man who dismissed his wife because of fornication and marries another.
We recognize that both are adulterers, though the sin of one is more grave
than that of the other. No one is so unreasonable to say that a man who
marries a woman whose husband has dismissed her because of fornication
is not an adulterer, while maintaining that a man who marries a woman dismissed
without the ground of fornication is an adulterer. Both of these men are
guilty of adultery" (Adulterous Marriages 1:9:9 [A.D. 419]).
"A woman begins to be the wife of no later husband
unless she has ceased to be the wife of a former one. She will cease to
be the wife of a former one, however, if that husband should die, not if
he commit fornication. A spouse, therefore, is lawfully dismissed for cause
of fornication; but the bond of chastity remains. That is why a man is
guilty of adultery if he marries a woman who has been dismissed even for
this very reason of fornication" (ibid., 2:4:4).
"Undoubtedly the substance of the sacrament is
of this bond, so that when man and woman have been joined in marriage they
must continue inseparably as long as they live, nor is it allowed for one
spouse to be separated from the other except for cause of fornication.
For this is preserved in the case of Christ and the Church, so that, as
a living one with a living one, there is no divorce, no separation forever"
(Marriage and Concupiscence 1:10:11 [A.D. 419]).
"In marriage, however, let the blessings of marriage
be loved: offspring, fidelity, and the sacramental bond. Offspring, not
so much because it may be born, but because it can be reborn; for it is
born to punishment unless it be reborn to life. Fidelity, but not such
as even the unbelievers have among themselves, ardent as they are for the
flesh. . . . The sacramental bond, which they lose neither through separation
nor through adultery, this the spouses should guard chastely and harmoniously"
(ibid., 1:17:19).
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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