‘Anyone who doesn’t believe that two people should be allowed to separate after a hell of a marriage because God had put them together should also not be allowed to have an appendectomy — heck because God had put his body together!’
I WAS in church yesterday, a rare moment admittedly, because I was godfather to a good friend and former Coca-Cola Tigers PBA player Mark Macapagal at his wedding. And because it was a wedding, I once again heard the admonitions and advice always given at weddings, such as to love one another till death.
Of course, the folks who concocted that vow meant death in the physical sense — that the union only was dissolved when one party passed away. They never ever thought of the death of love itself — that it could happen that in the course of years of marriage (or weeks even?) one party wakes up, looks at the other, and says “I am no longer in love with this person.”
The death of love was not what the authors of the marriage vows had in mind because that isn’t supposed to happen. Sure, you can wake up one day and say, “I am no longer happy” but guess what: you have no escape. Marriage was and is a life sentence and that you’re no longer happy doesn’t matter one bit.
The church fathers always tell us: “What God put together no man can put asunder.” Remember that.
And so, as usual, there I was sitting in the pew and my mind started to stray. “What God has put together no man can put asunder.” An interesting thought, I said to myself. But was this absolute? (Well, if you could afford it the Vatican might give you an annulment.)
Then it struck me: what was something more than marriage that God really put together? Remember that in marriage two parties came together, felt happy together, and decided (arguably) that God meant them to be and thus they get married to get God’s formal approval of their union. But can God get it wrong sometimes? Surely the Church fathers will say “of course not,” and then in response I will ask them why some of those chosen Pope had to be excommunicated later on.
But it also struck me that there’s something more than a marriage that God put together — and that’s our bodies! Think about it.
Now, think about that rule that whatever God puts together no man can put asunder. If applied to the body — the one real thing that God and only God put together — does that mean all our surgical procedures to remove diseased body parts is against the wishes of God?
You see, in my book it’s either you uphold that belief in full and live it in toto or you don’t. Anyone who doesn’t believe that two people should be allowed to separate after a hell of a marriage because God had put them together should also not be allowed to have an appendectomy — heck because God had put his body together!
But since I believe in appendectomies and mastectomies and even lobotomies, so do I believe in divorce.
Because just as humans can err in asking God to bless a choice of a Pope, humans can and do err in asking God to bless a choice of a partner.
