Bachelor of Arts in Theology
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Browsing Bachelor of Arts in Theology by Author "Andrei, Kokany"
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- ItemMarriage and Divorce in Mt. 19:1-12(Tangaza University College, 2000-02-12) Andrei, KokanyThe sun was like a robin egg blue down coming when the Fr. In-charge of Bondeni Parish invited his confreres for a wedding ceremony that afternoon. But the response he got from the Assistant Parish Priest caused a laughter in the whole community. "You go and marry them but tomorrow I will open my marriage tribunal office and they will be the first to come requesting me to have them divorce one another", responded Fr. Keller. This is one of the jokes that a community of Priests make in parishes but from the out look of the joke it gives a clear picture on how severe the problem marriage and divorce is. In these last years the parish of Bondeni experienced a lot of divorce cases, and also experienced a lot of cases on polygamous marriage as well. Today divorce have become rampart, it is being experienced more often than before. In one of the local daily news print, they showed a mathematical figure on divorce whereby if the issue is going to be taken lightly the future of marriage vocation is at stake because the question on divorce is growing at an alarming rate. It is proposed that one out of six women you meet in a matatu who has reached a marriageable age is divorced or at least is a single women parent. Again, in the Daily Nation, Friday, Jan 21,2000, on the section of your weekender magazine, there is a current situation of the problem. Many of these single women in the town of Nairobi have resorted to put on wedding rings. "They are wearing a mark of a married person which they think can be a good camouflage." Nancy K. is one of such women who are wearing wedding rings in belief that the symbol keeps men form bothering her. She has a marriage ring on her second finger and an engagement ring on the third. Many others have resorted to put on wedding rings as a good camouflage to stop men from persuing them romantically and father with her another child. To prevent from reviving her past painful experience which is now cooling down from her previous failed marriage, they wear these rings now a days. Divorce is a problem at Bondeni Catholic Parish and even at the universal level of the Church today. Parish Priests often get suprised to seeing good Catholics married in Church, divorcing later or the husband adding another wife to his already existing marriage. My own Parish Priest blessed a marriage of one of his Catechists, and as if it was a blessing to his blessed marriage the husband went to an interview and by good luck he was promoted to the post of sub-chief of the sub- location. But to the suprise of many, even though he did not divorce the first wife which is bad he equally added another wife. It is from this present day experience of marriage and divorce, of many single women parents, that we have decided to write this composition trying to find out what does the Good News of Jesus teach concerning marriage and divorce. We believe that many of the divorced cases incidents are being experienced by our baptized sisters. According to the whole population of Kenya, 60-70% of Kenyans are Christians of which 50-55% are Catholics. Each Sunday at least there is a celebration of the Eucharist, plus good homilies, and of course a bumper Sunday collection but many of those going to these Sunday services, taking part in the choir singing during the Liturgy are our divorced sisters. We will, learn the teaching on marriage and divorce according to Saint Matthew 19:1-12, because chronologically it is the first Gospel which Jesus Christ our teacher instructed us. And this will form our first chapter. In our second chapter, we will solely dedicate it to the theological significance of Jesus' teaching in Matthew's Gospel. Our third chapter will be comparing the relevance of Jesus' teaching in Matthew with other New Testament writers on the same issue. This is due to the fact that the Gospel of Matthew in general is an exceptional one, and also this gospel passage which we are going to embark on, Jesus taugh about marriage and divorce with exceptions. For example, Jesus is said to have forbidden divorce except for pomeia. The exception word put us to doubt if we will get a satisfactory answer if we rely on Matthew alone. This is why we are going to seek other clarifications from other New Testament writer like Saints Mark, Luke and Paul where Jesus taught about marriage and divorce as well. However, we can not stop at this level of saying to married couples look here the bible forbids or allows divorce and we have great proofs from our findings. Therefore, in our fourth chapter, we will dedicate to the factors we will consider in helping young people contemplating marriage. We hope marriage and divorce which is a pastoral problem and urgent one, marriage and divorce which is a biblical problem since it is tarnishing the biblical image of marriage will get some solutions:There will be a reduction of the number of divorce cases, also a reduction in the number of single women who wear wedding to appear "social correct"2 as one Clinical Psychologist, Emmy Gichinga would.