The Sunday Mail
Tendai Mbirimi
The number of divorce cases being handled by the courts on a daily basis makes one wonder whether people still wed for love.
Could it be that some weddings came into being to guarantee security? Or a need to have access to property rights? Maybe so that one can be counted among the highly esteemed members of the church and have access to certain privileges?
Few moons from the wedding day, the marriage certificate becomes a contract whose signatories would be restlessly waiting for the slightest opportunity to revoke it.
The recent pronouncement by Pope Francis that Roman Catholic has reformed the marriage annulment process to make it easier for Catholics to end unions is a sign that all is not well with the institution called marriage.
Some churches in Zimbabwe have reserved certain positions for those who wed as per Chapter 5:11 of the Marriages Act. Certainly good! However, this has a danger of encouraging members to wed solely to have access to certain rights.
It is good to wed but its best to know the reason why your spouse has chosen to. Most wedding rings you see displayed on the left ring finger do not reflect matters of the heart. Recently I spoke to a Catholic couple who had just tied the knot. They revealed that they had for long endured being “cathedral-outcasts” whenever it was time to receive the Holy Communion
The duo indicated that they were so excited not only because they had wedded, but because they could now receive the Holy Communion, which is a preserve for confirmed wedded couples in their church.
Could this have contributed to the demise of many Catholic marriages? Vast numbers are said to be seeking annulment as revealed by Father Frederick Chiromba to The Sunday Mail of September 20 2015?
What boggles the mind is that when a marriage is said to be a nullity, it simply means it never existed from the beginning and that something was gravely wrong at the time when wedding vows were made. As a result, this will prevent a valid marriage from coming into existence, even when people would have stayed together for years.
Many institutions particularly churches have laws which at times encourage people to wed all for the wrong reasons. It is extremely dangerous tying the knot sorely to have access to certain privileges considered a preserve for wedded couples.
Why not seek love first before considering the issue of tying the knot. Preservation of the nuptials as a sacred entrance to marital life as well as treating it with the esteem it deserves, and being honest to one another is the root to marital happiness. To all those en-route to their big day, ask yourselves this question: Are my reasons to tie the knot genuine?
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