Permanency of Marriage – Rev. Martin Scott S. J.

Next in importance to the union of one man with one woman in marriage is the permanency of the union. The nature of marriage is such that temporary union is incompatible with its purpose. We must consider marriage as an institution affecting not this or that individual, but the human race. Also we must keep in mind that there is no law nor institution among mankind that does not cause some individuals pain, loss or hardship of one kind or another. If we abolish a law because of its occasional hardships or abuses, we should have to abolish every law and every institution in the world. Taxes, speed laws, health laws, etc., at times cause great inconvenience and even hardship on individuals, but the welfare of the public at large demands nevertheless that these laws be carried into effect. So with marriage, the good of mankind requires that in spite of incidental hardship the bond be permanent. By nature man is drawn to associate sexually with woman. Nature’s purpose in this union is the perpetuation of the human race. The natural and ordinary result of marriage is offspring. In exceptional cases children may not be the outcome of sex relationship, but they are the normal and ordinary consequence. Children have the natural right to the care, protection and love of father and mother. Unless marriage be permanent children are deprived of this natural right. If death remove either parent that is the affair of Providence. The Creator has the right to rule the world as He sees fit, and the wisdom to dispose of His creatures for their ultimate welfare. God is the Author of Nature, man is His subject and bound by nature’s laws. Hence for man to deprive his children of what nature entitles them to, is the violation of nature’s ordinance. A child by the devotion and sacrifice of either father or mother alone, may be reared satisfactorily, but it is ordinarily exceptional, and always there is left a rancor in the heart of the child who is deprived of either father or mother otherwise than by the hand of death. Besides the children, the mother must be considered. A mother is not ordinarily independent and free to live her own life. Motherhood has made her responsible for those to whom she has given birth. By marriage she gave her maidenhood to her husband. That can never be restored to her. In giving that she gave what is most precious to woman. In return the man engaged to be her support and protector. Motherhood and wifehood demand permanence of the marriage bond. Civil law recognizes this indirectly, since it obliges man to supply by alimony what is renounced by divorce when for just cause the courts grant the woman a decree of separation. No man, regarding marriage disinterestedly , would consider it otherwise than permanent. No normal man contracts marriage except with the intention of forming a lasting union. No man living but feels in his heart that the nature of marriage demands permanency. The status of wife, mother and children cry out for the lasting union of the bond of matrimony.

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