Marriage is commitment (1)

For catholics, marriage is an inseparable bond between a man and a woman - a commitment for life. It is not only a legal contract, but a human and a social one. Above all, it is a sacrament through which both partners can grow spiritually together and, with God's help, assume the role of parents to raise a family in the best possible way.

Marriage is centred on the human person; partners are required to love and care for each other at all times, for better or worse. This means that annulment may occur if, for some reason, one partner is not duly respected by being seriously deceived when entering the marriage bond.

On a macro level, families are founded on a marriage and they constitute a nation. It is therefore in the interest of all families to produce good citizens for a stable nation. Above all, in the Catholic sense, for God's glory.

On a micro level, a crucial question needs to be asked. Why do people marry? Some have no difficulty in explicitly revealing that they marry to legalise their sexual relationship.

From writings and everyday discourse, implicitly or explicitly, one can deduce that some marry for money or status, to keep it or acquire it. On a more intimate level, some may collude into a relationship that nurtures the psychological needs of both partners, not necessarily congenial to one partner who develops into a suffering one.

Others who make good choices develop good communication skills which help them to settle differences productively by giving and taking (in the way that elderly couples successfully married for a lifetime express themselves).

Will divorce alter anything of this? It is more likely that second, third or forth marriages will be subject to the same pattern, which is why some people remarry and remarry again without success. Who is being hypocritical and why?