Your Faith Journey - Finding God Through Words, Song And Praise

Today’s gospel reading is difficult because it has often become an oppressive passage when taken out of context.   I also find it difficult because I come to this scripture passage as a once divorced woman with an awareness of the depth of my own brokenness.  Yet, I believe it is very important that we faithfully wrestle with hard, difficult passages in scripture and not avoid them. Today, we hear Jesus teaching about relationships, marriage and divorce.  However, in order for us to understand what this reading says about divorce, we must first understand what marriage meant in ancient culture.  Biblical scholar, Bruce Melina, tells us: Under normal circumstances in the world of Jesus, individuals really did not get married.  Families did.  One family offered a male, the other a female.  Their wedding stood for the wedding of the larger extended families and symbolized the fusion of the honor of both families involved.  It would be undertaken with a focus on political and/or economic concerns.  Marriage was n