Marriage among Catholics is primarily for the production and raising of children, to become citizens of heaven. In the very first book of the Bible Genesis 1:26-28 God’s first commandment to humans was to be fruitful and multiply (“And He said: let us make man to our image and likeness: and let him have dominion over the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air, and the beasts and the whole earth, and every creeping creature that moveth upon the earth. And God created man to His own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female He created them. And God blessed them saying: increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and rule over the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and all living creatures that move upon the earth.”).
Marriage is also to be permanent as long as the spouses live. Specifically, divorce with remarriage is forbidden. Separation due to the fact that a spouse is violent toward the other spouse or the children is acceptable, just not subsequent remarriage as long as the accompanying spouse is alive. In the second chapter God declared marriage so permanent that a married couple are to become one flesh (Genesis 2:24 – “Wherefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they shall be two in one flesh”). If you cut a being that is one flesh in half does that not usually kill the being? In this case it appears to say the being is killed spiritually support that fact that, in the Catholic Church, divorce and remarriage is a mortal sin.
The cite in Ephesians 5:28-33, once again supports the permanence of marriage re-citing the exhortation by God to become one flesh and to treat each other in the marriage well because it mirrors Christ’s connection with the Church and indeed it is so important in the life of the church that in this cite Jesus Christ designates marriage a sacrament. Reinforcing this is 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 which says: “But to them that are married, not I but the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her husband. And if she depart, that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband.” So this passage says one cannot remarry if they leave but if the wish to be married have the option of reconciling. And let not the husband put away his wife, and in Mark 10:2-12 the quote: “What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”
The permeance of marriage, so that if “it doesn’t work out” you can’t remarry unless your spouse dies, and the fact that the natural law was created by God so is unlawful to try to “get around” that law (i.e. if you have sex you have children) is why no one wants to follow the Catholic religion, and all implies about the permanence of marriage and the fact that marriage is for the production of children, but prefer Martin Luther’s interpretation that marriage is not a sacrament but a simple secular legal contract, who I understand married a num, forcing her to not only break her vows to God but also breaking his own vows of celibacy as a priest.
The problem is that many that subscribe to the Christian philosophy an ex-catholic priest’s view of marriage concerning the permanence of marriage and its primary goal as reproduction as opposed to God the father’s injunction in Genesis and God the Sons injunction in Mark as well as through the apostle to the gentile’s interpretation – that is St. Paul to the Ephesians. Martin Luthur’s biggest failing was not wanting to be subject to any authority. Once when challenged on a religious opinion he held he used as a defense, and I’m paraphrasing here: because Dr. Martin Luther says so.
1 Corinthians 7:27 and Romans 7:2 reinforce that a married couple is bound until death. Once one dies the other is free to remarry. Matthew 19:1-12 reiterates that divorce is one thing, but given that, you cannot remarry.
As for how married couples should treat one another, Ephesians 4:32 says “Be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” This is a more general exhortation. And with regard to a vow such as one in a wedding: for better or worse until death do us part, see Ecclesiastes 5:4-6.
These are reasons why the greatest of care must be taken in selecting a marriage partner. The most effort must be put into staying together, in both the spiritual and physical secular sense because separation is detrimental to the children and as can be seen in many divorces, as well as detrimental to at least the mental health of a woman/child in particular, if she chooses a physically abusive new significant other.
Traditional Thomistic Catholic 