Ninth Sunday of Summer

Gospel Reading
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Some Pharisees came up to him to put him to the test; they asked him, ‘Is it lawful for a man to send away his wife for any reason?’ He replied, ‘Haven't you read this? From the beginning, the Creator made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
Let no man separate that which God has joined together.

They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses prescribe that a certificate of divorce be given before divorce?

Ieshu replied: ‘Because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses allowed you to put away your wives. But in the beginning it was not so.

But I tell you, if a man puts away his wife - except in the case of adultery - and marries another, he is an adulterer.

His disciples said to him, ‘If that's the way a man feels about his wife, it's better not to marry.’

​He answered them: ‘There are eunuchs here, some of whom have made eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who can hear, let him hear!'

'Christ among the Pharisees' by Jacob Jordaens, c. 1660.