What God Has Joined Together

And so the Lord Jesus himself, in the gospel, repeats to everyone who breaks out into this mad blasphemy what he said to the Pharisees, and declares: “What God has joined together, let no man separate.” For although, where God first spoke these words, they seem to answer a different question, the deep wisdom of God, which was speaking of spiritual things no less than of bodily ones, meant them to be taken of that subject indeed, but even more of this one. For the Jews of that day believed, as you do, that Jesus was only a man, without divinity. And when the Lord was asked a question about the union of marriage, his teaching referred not only to that but to this as well. Though he was consulted about lesser matters, his answer applied to greater and deeper ones when he said, “What God has joined together, let no man separate.” That is: Do not sever what God has joined together in my Person. Let no human wickedness sever what the divine glory has united in me. [a]

But if you want to be told more fully that this is so, listen to the apostle speaking about the very subjects the Savior was then teaching. For he, as a teacher sent from God, explained the very things God had proclaimed in a mystery, so that his hearers, weak in understanding, might be able to take in his teaching. When he was discussing bodily union, the subject the Savior had been asked about in the gospel, he repeated the very passages from the old Law that the Lord had dwelt on. He did this on purpose, so that his hearers might see that, since he was using the same authorities, he was explaining the same subject. Besides this, so that nothing might seem lacking to his case, he adds the mention of bodily union and puts in the names of husband and wife, urging them to love one another: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church.” And again: “So men also ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the Church, for we are members of his body.” You see how, by adding Christ and the Church to the mention of man and wife, he leads everyone away from taking it in a fleshly sense to understanding it in a spiritual one.

For when he had said all this, he added the passage the Lord had applied in the gospel: “For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and will cling to his wife, and the two will be one flesh.” And after this he adds, with special emphasis: “This is a great mystery.” By saying that it is a divine mystery, he certainly cuts off and does away with any fleshly interpretation altogether. And what did he add after this? “But I am speaking of Christ and the Church.” That is to say: “That indeed is a great mystery, but I am speaking of Christ and the Church.” In other words, since perhaps not everyone can grasp that at present, they may at least grasp this, which does not conflict with it and is not different from it, because both refer to Christ. Because they cannot grasp those deeper truths, let them at least take in these easier ones, so that, by beginning with what lies on the surface, they may come to the deeper truths, and so that getting hold of a fairly simple matter may in time open the way to what is more profound.