Divorce and Remarriage in the EOC

As a Catholic I took it as an axiomatic truth that divorce and remarriage is not sanctioned by divine law and in fact is condemned by God. However, over time, my views on the subject have changed. I believed then as I do now that there is a certain validity to creating some regulations on divorce and remarriage. The two are both very grave, and as New Testament Scripture does not speak highly of either, they must not be dealt with lightly. I'm familiar with both the Latin Catholic and the Eastern Orthodox position

Neither the Latin Catholics nor the Orthodox have a quick and easy solution to the problem of marital difficulties. The Latin Catholics argue that once two people marry, neither car marry another person while the original other spouse still lives. To their support, the Latin Catholics bring forth several quotes from the early Church Fathers, many but not all from the Latin Fathers, which argue to the effect that no remarriage is allowed. Also, Latin Catholics bring forward Paul's words against a woman who departs from her husband from remarrying.

The Orthodox, on the other hand, point out that in many divorces there is an innocent party. For example, the husband may violently beat his wife, who becomes the innocent party. In the Catholic approach, a woman in such a case must either reconcile with her deranged husband or remain alone the rest of her life, or at least until her husband dies. As Archbishop Elias Zoghby (a Melkite Catholic bishop who sympathizes with the Orthodox understanding) describes, heroic virtue is expected of the woman. She is expected to be that which she never truly felt called for in the first place. The salvation of the innocent party's soul is at stake.

When I mull over in my mind these issues, I am reminded of Jesus' words to the Pharisees. I reproduce the words and situation here:

1At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. 2When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath."

3He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6I tell you that one^[a] greater than the temple is here. 7If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,'^[b] you would not have condemned the innocent. 8For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." (source: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2012&version=31)

The above is from Matthew 12. The Pharisees claim Jesus is doing something unlawful on the Sabbath. Jesus points to David, who even Jesus says did something unlawful on the Sabbath (Jesus does not here claim that what David did was "lawful") The last two verses deserve repeated: If you had known what these words mean, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

There is, I think, a difficulty in Latin Catholicism when it comes to reading passages in Scripture on divorce and remarriage. When Latin Catholics read injunctions of Jesus and Peter regarding divorce and remarriage, they take these injunctions in a very strict, no qualifications, sense. Yet, when Latin Catholics read other passages of Jesus and Peter regarding a bishop being a husband of one wife, "those who live by the sword die by the sword," etc. there is an attitude of "well, they said that for this or that reason due to the culture of the times, but the essence of what they were saying..." No bishop in the Latin Catholic Church (or any Eastern Church for that matter) is allowed married. The Crusades, violent expertises against Muslims and Albigensians, among others, received papal blessings, and even came with indulgences. There are explanations for these in relation to the Scriptural texts that literally appear in opposition to these occurrences.

The error, I think, is in falling into legalism: replacing the laws of the Old Testament with the laws of the New Testament, but without the Hesed, the mercy, by which all laws of God are to be understood. According to a strict interpretation of their laws, the Pharisees were right in pointing out Jesus' transgression. Yet, the Pharisees did not understand the true meaning of the laws given them. They forgot the two great commandments. They relegated mercy and love below the strict observance of rites and regulations. Sadly, I believe something similiar has occurred in the Latin Catholic Church, where Christ's words have become fixed laws that serve to condemn any and all who trespass them, no matter the circumstances or personal situation, or exception.