Peace be to you.

Before speaking of marriage as a sacrament, it is important to show that in the natural order, the human order, that is to say in the order apart from grace,

marriage is an unbreakable bond until death's parts.

This was affirmed by our blessed Lord.

The Pharisees came to him on one occasion and asked if it was right for any man to put away

his wife or any cause whatsoever.

Our blessed Lord answered,

Have you never read how he created them when they first came to be?

Created them male and female.

And how he said, a man therefore will leave his father and mother and will cling to his wife,

and the two will become one flesh.

And so they are no longer two.

They are one flesh.

What God then has joined, let no man put asunder.

It is to be remarked that in these words of our blessing, Let no man put asunder.

It is to be remarked that in these words of our blessed Lord,

he was speaking of marriage from the beginning.

When therefore the question of divorce arose,

our blessed Lord said, and I tell you that he who puts away his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he too commits adultery who

marries her after she has been put away.

These words sound like a great judgment upon a civilization such as ours,

where there is one divorce for every four marriages

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