The last two Friday’s have focused on the subject of cheating with the articles: Are Men Wired to Cheat and African Men are Naturally Polygamous. Today we’ll address the issue of fidelity in marriage from a religious perspective with this sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Kami titled The Sanctity of Marriage.
1st Reading: Ezekiel 16:1-15
2nd Reading: Matthew 19:3-12
In the first scripture, God confronted the people of Israel with their sins of ingratitude expressed in their acts of infidelity after He had been so kind to them. God found them in a terrible, despicable and abandoned state; yet he cleansed them, adorned them and clothed their nakedness with royal robes. They became attractive and abandoned God to follow other gods. It’s an allegory of ingratitude and crass infidelity.
Infidelity is a terrible crime that should be avoided. Unfaithfulness can exist in a friendship or in any form of relationship; one may even be unfaithful to an agreement. But the worst form of infidelity is in marriage. There are 5 points on marriage I would like to touch on:
- Infidelity to marital vows is a terrible sin before God, it’s a sin against the Church, it is an injustice against one’s spouse and it threatens the peace of the family, and worst of all, it sentences one to eternal punishment in Hell.
It’s unfortunate that today many don’t have the fear of God; neither do they respect their spouses. Some men flaunt their infidelity in their wives presence. Many oppress their wives and reduce them to nothing while they adorn and adore other women.
If you are a lady enjoying the care of a married man while the wife at home is crying daily, keep in mind that no one enjoys the sweet taste of stolen water without also enduring the bitterness of gall-drink.
- Marriage is not just an agreement; it is a covenant; an indissoluble covenant, so divorce should not be a resort; it is not the intention of God. Rather, you should devise a workable means of reconciling your differences and conflicts with your spouse. Even though the Church permits separation in some extreme cases, it won’t be necessary if both spouses are open to Christian virtues and live out their marriage as God prescribes.
- Divorce is of two types: formal and informal divorce. Formal divorce is for a man and a woman to officially declare that the bond between them is no longer existent and that they are “perpetually” separated. No one actually has this power because what God has joined together, man cannot divide.
Informal divorce is very popular today. This is when a man and a woman are still together but are no longer in communion, they stay together but don’t live together, and they have lost the first purpose of marriage, which is companionship. Some couples are together, not out of love but because of their children.
- Husband and wife constitute an entity, a distinct but not isolated community. As such, in-laws, friends, relatives, families should allow husband and wife to have some relative freedom and independence. Misguided interventions should be discouraged; the bible says a man leaves his Father and mother and clings to his wife and the two – only the two – become one body.
- One of the purposes of marriage is procreation; this is the duty of both spouses. Parents should wake up to their responsibilities of bringing up not just intelligen but civil and God-fearing Children too.
I pray that God restores peace, unity and joy in your homes.