When we look at today’s gospel, we can take it at face value as speaking against divorce, but I do not think that ultimately is Jesus’ whole point. This confusion is further driven home, when we see Jesus’ words in the context of his time not ours. Clearly, I am not saying that Jesus is not speaking against divorce, but what I am saying is that Jesus’ words go deeper than marriage itself.

Let us remember that in Jesus’ time, women were an object. They were like property and less than second class citizens, they were completely at the mercy of the man. Jesus, however, teaches that this was never God’s original intention. He adds that what was created as two equals making one whole being, has been changed to this system against which he is responding. Therefore, the issue here is not so much divorce as much as the nature of the human person. It is a truth that each person has a dignity given to him or her by God Himself. Therefore, people must treat one another out of that sense of dignity as opposed to any sense of legal standard. Again, we look at the law and see that Jesus is raising the behavior of his followers to a level higher than the legal standards of the day. Yes, it was legal to divorce, but doing so turns the woman at this time into an object. Today, I think that standard has reversed and in divorce the man becomes the object. In either case, neither should be an object.

What is an object? It is something I use to my immediate, usually self centered or financial benefit. When it does not benefit me, I dispose of it. It is no longer of any use to me. This is what happens when we turn people into objects. If they do not make me personally happy, then I eliminate them from my life. This principle, however, extends beyond objects. When we make people objects, then we treat them exactly the same way. This is what Jesus is saying.

Women are not objects, as they were at the time, but actually, through creation, they form one ingredient of two that make a new creation when those two ingredients come together. The other is the man. Therefore, there is a unique dignity there, that is not recognized by the law, Roman and Jewish that Jesus is installing into Christianity. The dignity, however, extends to all human beings. Therefore, we should not focus strictly on marriage here, but on all human life. Everyone we see has a unique dignity and we have a choice to either recognize that dignity, or ignore it and objectify the person. In fact, the first step to a holocaust is to objectify your enemy and take away their humanity. Slavery, for example, was justified because people defined Africans as less than human. Abortion is justified because the pro-abortion forces describe the unborn as nothing more than lifeless tissue.

Therefore, we can see that this is not just a divorce issue, but that reality of what is a woman and what is a human being goes to the very definition of the human being. Women are not subhuman, they are human beings that form one half of the male-female equation. Likewise with the man.

Let us extend this, however, because anytime we use another as an object, we are doing what Jesus condemns here. it is a sin to hire someone to work under the table. No one hired under the table for any reason is benefiting in the long run. He or she is being used by the employer who turns the secret labor into his benefit which helps the worker only as long as it benefits the employer. The minute the employer no longer benefits, he throws the worker away. That could be through the worker sustaining an injury, through him demanding at least the legally minimum wage, etc. and then being fired because of it. Whatever the case may be. It is equally as much a sin.

When a child’s grades become more important to a parent than the child himself, when the man stops being a man but becomes a racial epithet. The whole system leads us to recognize that we need to see people as God sees them, not as objects.

We also need to get beyond the concept of sin. Understanding everything as either a sin or not, is likewise a misunderstanding of Jesus. It is not just that we mustn’t look at another as an object, but that we must learn to love the other other person and we cannot love a person in the same way we love an object. Love is something that requires us to see and treat the person on a human level and often a mysterious level. It means we enjoy the person’s presence, but at other times we see the person’s imperfections and we learn to accept what we enjoy, with what we don’t. That is love. It is that we seek the best for the whole unit in the family and not ourselves.

When you objectify someone, that does not happen, because the minute you have to tolerate the person, it is time to throw him or her away. You cannot love that person. When we choose to love and the person reciprocates, we build a community of love that is life giving to all in the community through its charity and lack of self-fish intention.

Be careful not to engage in objectifying anybody. But to be a lifegiving presence by manifesting Christ’s love in your family and in our world. You can only do that by being faithful to prayer and love in your Catholic faith.

Photo credit:

All photos via bigstockphoto.com

Top: Liliya

Middle top: Louoates
Middle bottom: Mrlighting
Bottom: Galdzer