Joke: Three men died and went to heaven. Upon their arrival, St. Peter asked the first one if he had been faithful to his wife while on earth. The man admitted to having two affairs during his marriage. St. Peter told him that he could receive only a compact car to drive in heaven. St. Peter asked the second man with same question, the man admitted that he had only one affair. St. Peter gave him a mid-size car to drive. The third man came, with the same question, the man admitted that he had no affair from the day of his marriage until he died. St. Peter was impressed and gave him a luxury car. A week later, three men were driving around, and they stopped at the red light. The men in the compact and mid-size cars turned to see the man in the luxury car crying, they asked, “What’s the matter?” The man said, “I just passed my wife, and she was on a skateboard.”

Catholic bishops of America, forty years ago, specially designated the first Sunday of October as a “Respect Life Sunday.” Throughout October, Catholics of America are called in a special way to reflect on the gift of human life, the threats against it, and how we can protect all people from conception to natural death. Together with respecting for life, the Church puts together all today’s readings to remind us of the true meaning of the vocation to marriage life when the Lord Jesus himself reminds us of God’s intention right from the beginning of creation, the creation of Adam and Eve saying, “from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” Someone might ask, how come we have the annulment, the declaration-of-marriage-nullity process, in the Catholic Church? Not only that, Pope Francis once encouraged bishops of America to speed up the process of annulment to two months instead of one year. He also encouraged them to make this process free instead of over $300 cost. The pope encouraged all the bishops of the United States to implement his new reform not to encourage people to divorce and to have annulment, but rather, he recognized the mercy and the forgiveness that the Lord had for his people, he would like to extend that mercy and forgiveness, and at the same time, still strictly maintained the Catholic doctrine on marriage and indissolubility that meant “What God has joined together, no human being must separate.”

In this teaching that St. Mark repeats in today’s Gospel, the Catholic Church still holds strictly her doctrine on marriage and its indissolubility. Moses allowed the Israelites to divorce, but Jesus did not, why? It’s just simply because marriage between a man and a woman has been blessed by the Lord right from the beginning of creation, and what the Lord has joined, no one can separate. “The two of them become one flesh,” as mentioned in today’s first reading taken from the book of Genesis and was repeated by the Lord Jesus himself in today’s Gospel.

Have you ever wondered why the Church blesses the rings that the couple exchange with each other at the Sacrament of Matrimony? The blessed rings that they exchanged with each other put on their wedding finger. We normally have ten fingers on our two hands. These ten fingers symbolize the close people involved in our lives. Two thumbs are our parents. Two index fingers are our siblings. The little fingers symbolize our children. The index finger symbolizes our spouse and the middle fingers, I don’t have to explain. If we put these ten fingers together, the middle fingers are the highest. This means our natural human inclination is self-center and ego. However, when we learn to humble ourselves to lower the middle fingers down, we will see everybody around us. The two index fingers, we have no problem to open them alone. The same with the two thumbs, then the two little fingers alone except the two wedding fingers. One cannot open these two wedding fingers alone. In other words, they become one. The moment the couple exchanges their rings, they are invited to become one flesh. To become one, they are invited to learn to put up with one another, to sacrifice for one another, to acknowledge the need for one another, and to truly love one another in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health to always love each other.

Both the first reading and the Gospel describe the indissolubility of a union between a man and a woman, the two become one flesh. The question is how can the two become one flesh when there are two different personalities, two different anatomy structures, two different lifestyles brought up in two different families, and many other differences? When they come together, they are invited to become one flesh, how?

These two become one is revealed through the Person of Jesus Christ who is God himself, lowers himself to the point of even lower than the angels, described in today’s second reading, to be a spouse for the Church. This sacrificial love for us is a perfect model of becoming one flesh with us and for us, especially his great sacrifice for the Church revealed on the cross. The fruit of this great sacrifice is for our salvation. The question for us then: How can we, our married couples, become one flesh as the Lord invites us? Can this becoming one flesh exist without the sacrificial love for one another? To give up one’s interests and to fulfill his or her spouse’s interests? To love each other without any condition? To accept children openly with God’s grace and help? And above all, to respect for the dignity of human beings from the moment of conception to the moment of natural death? Love and life are bound together just as the two wheels of a bicycle one cannot exist without the other to form a bicycle. Where love exists, life also exists. Just as no one can separate what God has united, no one can separate love and life. We are all invited to live this walk of life following Jesus’ teaching and the Church’s teaching. The decision is yours.