When Jesus spoke of himself as a bridegroom I imagine Him recalling the time in creation when He and his Father were at work in the garden fashioning man out of clay and breathing life into him, then shaping out of man's body a woman as his companion; and the delight the Father and the Son hearing man say, "This one, at last, is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh."
Remember, though, that Jesus came into this world to save man from his sins, to proclaim "the acceptable day of the Lord" and to call us to repentance, to regenerate the life our first parents had lost in paradise with God (Luke 4: 19, 21). "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" was the work which consumed Christ until his death on a cross. But He would recall before his death that day of delight in paradise when he was confronted by an accuser, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not" (Mt 9:14-15). He would claim that he was the bridegroom originally envisioned in the garden, and in turn ask his critics, "Can the servants of the bridegroom [his disciples] mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them?" (I doubt that Jesus's disciples or his accusers understood his meaning.)
Sometime earlier before Jesus began his public ministry he accepted a wedding invitation in Cana, and although his time had not yet come for miracles - still he performed his first miracle, changing water into wine and sparing a bridegroom of any embarrassment. Later in a parable he compared heaven to another bridegroom's wedding, a king's son, whose invited guests had excused themselves requiring the father of the bridegroom to ask strangers to his son's wedding celebration. In yet another parable Jesus spoke of foolish handmaids of a wedding party who were not prepared to greet the bridegroom and had arrived late for the festivities and were refused entry.
And in today's gospel Jesus took his critics to task when they degraded his finest work of creation, marriage between a man and a woman. "Let no man separate them." He did not quibble, and berated the Pharisees that Moses "out the hardness of their hearts" had allowed them to divorce, but Jesus reasserted the rule of life, that "from the beginning God made them male and female . . . and the two would be one flesh."
Whose hearts are "hardened" today?
We have heard the words of God. I will not add to them. They speak for themselves. Neither will I refer to church teachings in the matter. I would rather speak from nature, from our common experience, referred to as "Natural Law" as in the law of gravity, for instance. Drop something fragile and you know what will happen. If you do not know, then nature will teach you.
When Jesus recalled God's final act of creation in Genesis, His completion of 'man', He stated that, "the two shall become one flesh" and for emphasis repeated, "they are no longer two but one flesh." Jesus did not have to explain the obvious, how a man and a woman are "one flesh". Nature revealed the rule of life not only in their bodies and emotions but in the fruit of their relationship, a child, just as Mary's cousin, Elizabeth, understood that her younger cousin, Mary was "overshadowed" by the Holy Spirit and had conceived a child when she exclaimed, "Blessed is the fruit of thy womb" . . . Jesus. Nearly every living thing in nature is identified by its fruit. It is the essence of marriage so much so that an unconsummated marriage in both civil and church law is cause for the annulment of the marriage.
We know from nature the purpose of male and female, children. The child defines the man's and a woman's natures as father and mother just as clearly as parts in a hardware store, male and female parts do. That is all we have to know to reject sterilization, abortion and contraception which not only suppress new life but deprive the living of their personal development in ways they may not understand. Some would say, I suppose, If it is a disorder of nature we can live with that. But to their peril they soon lose much of their own personal identities as fathers and mothers when they are essentially neutered.
As the human body needs to replace its aging cells for the physical health of the body the human soul needs to replenish its pro-creative male or female powers for the spiritual growth and health of the whole person. These powers continuously enhance and renew themselves in a variety of pro-creative activities not only as fathers and mothers but as teachers and students, doctors and patients, priests and laity - as benefactors and beneficiaries bound together. In the mercy and Spirit of Christ it may be the recovery of God in man and man in God.
In the fulfillment of man is a father, in the fulfillment of a woman is a mother. It explains why the fourth commandment of the decalogue, "Honor thy Father and thy Mother", is the first of the final seven commandments defining man's relationship with his neighbors while the first three commandments define his relationship with God. Our first parents, Adam and Eve, bore two sons, Cain and Abel. Their oldest son, Cain, out of envy, perhaps learned from his unrepentant parents, murdered his younger brother, Abel. Adam and Eve had failed their vocations as father and mother as Cain had failed to honor his bond of life with his brother. When God questioned Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" Cain could only reply, "I do not know; am I my brother's keeper?" Many years later the first family bore a third child, Seth, the great, great . . . great grandfather of Noah, a sign, I hope, of their repented lives.
Summary of homily: As the human body needs to replace its aging cells for the physical health of the body the human soul needs to replenish its pro-creative male or female powers for the spiritual growth and health of the whole person. These powers continuously enhance and renew themselves in a variety of pro-creative activities not only as fathers and mothers but as teachers and students, doctors and patients, priests and laity - as benefactors and beneficiaries bound together. In the mercy and Spirit of Christ it may be the recovery of God in man and man in God.