In today’s Gospel, the Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce. They quoted Dt. 24:1-4, which was the Mosaic Law on marriage. There were two interpretations to this law: one was from liberal Rabbi Hilled who held that divorce was permissible for any reason but for Rabbi Shaman taught that divorce was only permissible on the ground of “uncleanliness” or sexual sins and infidelity.
      But we can understand why Moses wrote this law by asking: what form of divorce did the Hebrew practice before Moses gave them the law? It was probably the same “triple express” rule that they obtained from their Semitic neighbors, whereby a woman was considered divorced if her husband pronounced a divorce formula three times in the presence of witnesses. By oral statement alone a divorce could be concluded in an instant in a fit of anger. But requiring a letter of divorce in a culture where only the temple priests could read and write meant that a divorce process could take months to conclude. This would give the couple time to sleep over it, and friends and family members to mediate and resolve the conflict. The demand for a letter of divorce saved many marriages that would have ended in a hasty divorce in the old “triple express” system.

Christ perfected the desire of Moses to save marriages by taking his stand from the beginning of creation, he said, God ordained husband and wife to live in unity. “Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mark 10:9). This reply underlines two important points.

First point, Jesus treats the woman as a person. Earlier Jewish law treated her as property of the man to be disposed of at will. In fact, here our Gospel, for the first time in Hebrew literature (verse 12) we hear not just of the man divorcing the woman but also of the woman taking the initiative to divorce the man. Jesus treats the woman as a legal person equal to the man.

Second point, Jesus is interested in teaching not legal statements but moral principles. They asked him whether divorce was lawful; his reply was that the mind of God is for husband and wife never to separate. The asked him about what was lawful, he told them what was best for them.

Sometimes you hear the word "annulment" taken synonymous to divorce. But actually there is a great difference. In divorce there was actual marriage that happened and they want to break that bond, while in annulment, it is being determined what was lacking that made the marriage null from the beginning that it will help the church to conclude that in fact there was no true marriage ever existed. The correct phrase for annulment is "declaration of nullity."

Pope Benedict gives a key for interpreting Jesus teaching on marriage. In his encyclical, God is Love; he writes that monogamous marriage corresponds to the image of a monotheistic God. The Bible teaches that the one God loves us with the passion of a groom for his young bride. In turn he requires us to be faithful, as He is always faithful to us. Before him we can have no false gods. To go after a different god is adultery. He calls us to love Him totally and exclusively. Marriage is meant to be a sign, a sacrament of that indissoluble love between God and man.

          Since then there is “something” lacking in a man, and he will never be complete again until he finds that “rib” that he lost. That’s why it is so beautiful for me to see “a young man” courting a young pretty lady. I can picture a man who is so happy finding his long lost “rib” which can make him complete again, a real complete man. If you are already complete there is not reason looking for another “rib or ribs”; losing a rib and finding “one” is enough.

         And now that he found “it/her” he will never take chances of losing “it/her” again. No one would dare to lose freely any part of his body once again. Thus, for a man who loves, the word “divorce” does not exist in “his world.”

          Same is true with women. They are like “bones” moving around searching for that body where they are suppose to belong and when they find their real place, only then that they will surely feel that “fullness of being a woman.”