CHRISTIAN MARRIAGE MIRRORS THE UNION OF CHRIST AND THE CHURCH

TUESDAY, THIRTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Eph 5:21-33; Ps 128:1-5; Lk 13:18-21

The Mystery of the Kingdom of God

In today’s reading, St. Paul deepens our understanding of the mystery by using the analogy of the love between a husband and his wife. While admonishing the Christian spouses on how to treat each other in marriage, he used the opportunity to further his teaching on the mystery of Jesus Christ and his Church. He used the union of husband and wife as an analogy for the mystery of Christ and his bride, the Church. The love between the husband and wife is a part of the mystery of the love between Jesus Christ and his bride, the Church. Hence, Christ’s love is active in the love of spouses. Their love for each other is part and parcel of their love for Christ. So, an increase in the love of a spouse for Christ would invariably increase the love of the spouse. Also, the diminution in the spouses’ love for each other indicates the diminution of their love for Jesus Christ. We understand this explanation from the sacramental nature of Christian marriage. The effectiveness of the sacrament flows from the operation of its reality.

Subsequently, if the love of Jesus Christ decreases in the spouses, usually due to lack of knowledge of Christ, their love for each other becomes selfish, which produces lust as a corruption of love. When the spouses repent and re-embark on the journey into the mystery of Christ, their love for each other is purified and originates from their renewed spirits in communion with the Holy Spirit. Paul based his advice to Christian spouses on this. “Give way to one another in obedience to Christ. Wives should regard their husbands as they regard the Lord, since as Christ is head of the Church and saves the whole body, so is a husband the head of his wife; and as the Church submits to Christ, so should wives to their husbands, in everything.” Remarkably, the basis of their respectful treatment of each other is their obedience to Christ. If a spouse is not ready to obey Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit dwelling, then such a spouse sins gravely against Jesus Christ and against God, whose will is revealed to us by Christ. If the life and love of a Christian couple is this intricately connected to Jesus Christ, then the primary emphasis in a marriage should be the spiritual life or health of the spouses. Since this rests on prayer life, each must promote and protect the spiritual life of the other jealously. The Psalmist brings this point to our awareness. “O blessed are those who fear the Lord and walk in his ways! By the labour of your hands you shall eat. You will be happy and prosper. Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the heart of your house.” Thus, a spouse’s fear of the Lord is the gain of the other.”

The fear of the Lord in the man or the woman is a mystery of eternal life as our Lord taught in the Gospel. “Jesus said, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it with? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw into his garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air sheltered in its branches.” The analogy is apt for what happens in our hearts when we cultivate the fear of the Lord in them. The gain doubles when a spouse cultivates the fear of the Lord and nurtures it in the heart of the other spouse. The spouse is not just building a Christian family but a heavenly kingdom. The love of Christ and his graces flow through the spouses to their children and the Church at large. This aspect is also the mystery of Christ and his Church that Paul referred to. “For this reason, a man must leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one body. This mystery has many implications; but I am saying it applies to Christ and the Church.” By deriving their love for each other from Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit works with them to build a family for them and coordinate their incorporation into the Church of God, who is the Bride of Jesus Christ. Paul’s treatment makes it clear to us that the family does not belong to an individual as such or to the spouses but to God ultimately. The family is a project of God for which we must give account to him when we come before.

Let us pray: Grant us, Lord, your grace that we may understand the opportunity your loving kindness has provided for us in the gift of the family, that loving you above all thing in your Son whom you have made our Lord and Saviour, we may come to the fullness of your love as we love one another with the same love with which you have loved us in Christ.