Adultery

Gospel MK 10:1-12

Jesus came into the district of Judea and across the Jordan.
Again crowds gathered around him and, as was his custom,
he again taught them.
The Pharisees approached him and asked,
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
They replied,
“Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her.”
But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.”
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”

This one is troubling for me.  I am divorced from my first wife (and happily remarried x 17 years).  How do I reconcile my divorce of long ago with today's reading?  If I'm reading this correctly (and it seems pretty clear to me), I committed the sin of adultery.  While I've gone to Catholic confession a number of times (I'm certainly not a regular), I've never confessed to being an adulterer.  Maybe I should.  I think I will.  The season of Lent starts on March 5 and as a part of my lenten practice, I will go to confession.  Admittedly, I've gone to confession without having much to say - even so, I left feeling God's mercy and grace.  There are some other sins from long ago that I will confess as well.  Yesterday's reading talked about how we are purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit.  Sometimes that fire burns in a confessional.