"Can one divorce for any reason?" In other words, is there anything that binds a man and a woman when their feelings no longer draw them toward each other so strongly? What answers can be heard to this question? "Nothing binds them" (that is, one can divorce for any reason); "Mutual obligations bind them" (but how great is the value of a human word?); "Duty to society binds them" (but love can hardly be compared in value with civic duty...); "Children bind them" (yes, if they are taken into account).

Christ gives a different answer: a man and a woman are bound by the design for creation; that is, God Himself joins them. And He does this not through commandments and prohibitions on divorce, since law cannot generate love (something the Mosaic law wisely takes into account); He joins them by His presence in the relationship itself, acting by His wisdom and love in those who trust Him.

Let us notice that the question about divorce is asked by the Pharisees, who were used to clarifying legal subtleties. But from the subtleties of interpreting the law, Jesus brings them back to the meaning of the creation of man and woman, to the God-given possibility of their unity, which surpasses human legal arrangements. At the same time Christ notes that Moses' ruling on divorce was dictated by human reasons. In doing so He Himself testified that among what tradition has preserved there are also human elements. But they do not cancel the fact that, at its foundation, Revelation was given to us from above. And now Jesus proclaims the indissolubility of marriage as the norm established from the beginning.

In our time it is hard to accept these words and even harder to fulfill them. Marriages fall apart easily and are not regarded as permanent unions; even for many who come into the Church, it is already too late to keep the commandment of one marriage. Perhaps the words whoever is able to accept this, let him accept it may serve as consolation. But a merciful attitude toward those who cannot fulfill the commandment with complete precision does not cancel what has been established as the norm that was meant to prevail in the world.

It is hard to understand why the disciples tried to keep children from coming to Christ. Perhaps they thought that only adults, people capable of understanding His words, dared come to the Teacher. But He can become close to every age.

Christ's call to let the children come to Him and not hinder them answers the question of when Christian upbringing and entry into the Church can begin. There is no need to wait for the age of conscious understanding; He loves us from the womb and can reveal Himself to us at any age.

The land that the Hebrews who came from Egypt conquered was, of course, not empty. There were already cities, villages, fields, gardens, and vineyards there. The Hebrew people received all this "for free." In reality, of course, the people of God found nothing free on the land given by God. When we read in the Bible about the conquest of Palestine, it is important to remember that this conquest did not mean that the local inhabitants vanished forever, were slaughtered or expelled, and the conquerors received everything they had owned ready-made.

Many cities were indeed taken by storm and destroyed; others surrendered without a fight, and not all local tribes resisted the conquerors. But even when it was a matter of conquering a city and destroying it, no one moved into other people's houses. The words of the sacred writer cannot be understood literally. Yet they are certainly true with regard to the Hebrews' entry into a life that was new for them and far more comfortable than life in nomadic times.

They received an entire civilization ready-made, and, incidentally, mastered it quickly and firmly: over the span of only one or two generations the Hebrews turned from nomads into farmers and artisans, learning everything the local inhabitants knew how to do. And for this they had to thank only God, Who had brought them to the promised land and given them the opportunity to conquer it.

Meanwhile, their gratitude was far from always adequate; more often one had to speak of "gratitude" in quotation marks: after the conquest of Palestine, paganism began to spread widely among the Hebrew people, the worship of local Palestinian gods, which was strangely combined among them with elements of Yahwism.

Humanly speaking, there was nothing surprising here: the Hebrews learned everything from their neighbors, adopted their way of life, and in such a situation adopting the worship of local gods was more than natural. But it was precisely this naturalness that the people of God had to avoid: in this way they were in fact betraying and losing the One Who had given them the land they loved so much. To many it seemed that love for the land also meant love for the local gods.

In reality, precisely for the sake of love for the land given by God, it was necessary to reject the gods that, as the pagans thought, protected it. But not everyone understood this; those who did were a minority. The people of God had to pass through exile; they had to lose the land given by God in order to understand this simple but vitally important truth. They had to understand it so that they would never again repeat the mistakes of their ancestors, who turned away from God for the sake of the land He had given.