CHRIST IN THE HOME
http://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/CHRISTH1.TXT
BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J.
a Translation from the French
FREDERICK PUSTET CO., INC. Publishers NEW YORK AND
CINCINNATI
Nihil Obstat:
JOHN M. A. FEARNS, S.T.D., Censor Librorum
Imprimatur:
+FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN,
Archbishop of New York
New York, June 19, 1951
MARRIAGE
MARRIAGE AND THE MYSTICAL BODY
CHRIST came to restore the divine life lost to us by sin. But how? He
did not save us only by some act external to Himself as one might lay
down a sum of money to ransom a slave but by incorporating us in
Himself, by making all of us with Him a single organism. "I am the
Vine, you are the branches." Christ is the Head, we the members and
together we are the whole body, Christ. The aggregate of all the
members, all the branches united constitutes the Church joined by an
unbreakable bond to Christ, its Leader and Head.
And Christian marriage will be . . . and will only be . . . but the
symbol of this union of Christ with His Church, of the Church with
its Head Saint. Paul at the end of his Epistle to the Christians at
Ephesus gives no other rule of love and of security in their union to
the married than the counsel to copy this union in their life. He
says to wives. "Let women be subject to their husbands as to the
Lord: because the husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the
head of the Church being Himself Savior of the body. But just as the
Church is subject to Christ, so also let wives be to their husbands
in all things."
Then addressing himself to husbands, he continues: "Husbands love
your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and delivered
Himself up for her." This is the way husbands ought to love their
wives and recalling the words of Genesis. "They shall be two in one
flesh," Saint Paul concludes, "This is a great mystery.... I mean in
reference to Christ and to the Church."
Is it possible to imagine a divorce between Christ and the Church,
between the Church and Christ? By the same token, it should be
impossible to conceive of a divorce between a man and woman in
Christian marriage, the man being but a double, an image of Christ;
the woman a double, an image of the Church.
This is but a negative aspect . . . not to be disunited. The union of
Christ with the Church which baptism symbolizes invites the married
to have for each other the most profound and entire consecration to
each other. It is this entire consecration to each other which Saint
Paul demands.
It is not without reason that the liturgy of the nuptial mass
contains this particular epistle of Saint Paul. Unfortunately how few
understand something of the significance of these texts!
How much more fitting would it be, at the time of the marriage, to
profit by the marriage discourse to explain to those concerned the
sublime meaning of the ceremony and the obligations which will ensue
instead of handing out just so much twaddle and bestowing so many compliments!
The whole difficulty is that it would necessitate touching upon the
profound Gospel spirit and, for the majority of persons, the Gospel
is a dead letter. As a consequence, everyone keeps to the low level
of hackneyed themes understandable to all.
I shall come back often to this Epistle of my nuptial Mass; it will
help me to deepen my Christianity.
MUTUAL DEVOTEDNESS
THE emphasis upon the duty of reciprocal devotedness of husband and
wife is evident in the previous quotation from Saint Paul. So that
the Church may remain intact, beautiful, and immaculate, Christ is
lavish in His care of her. In return the Church leaves nothing undone
to bring glory to her Divine Spouse.
That is how husbands and wives should treat each other. The husband
must be another Christ, a faithful copy of Christ. He ought to
neglect nothing for the honor and the welfare of his wife; he should
even be ready, if the need arose, to shed his blood for her. She, on
her part, ought to do everything to revere her husband. It must be a
mutual rivalry of love.
Just as there exists between Christ and the Church, in perfect
harmony with their mutual devotedness, a bond of authority on the one
side and of submission on the other, so too in the home, the husband
is entrusted with the lead in their advance together and the wife
joins her efforts to his in sentiments of loving submission.
The wife's duty of subordination to her husband does not arise from
woman's incapacity but from the different functions each of the two
are to exercise. When each fulfills well the proper function, the
unity of the home is assured. The wife is not a slave; she is a
companion. On essential points there is no subordination but
necessary equality.
The man has no right to come to marriage sullied and yet demand that
his wife be still a virgin. The man does not have permission to
betray the home, and the wife the obligation to remain faithful. And
when it is a question of the marriage right, the duty is conjugal,
equal for each: When the husband asks the wife to give herself to him
she must grant the request. But there is a reciprocal duty. When she
makes the same request of him, he too must grant it.
The duty of subordination holds only where the direction of the home
is concerned. It does not give the husband the right to impose any of
his whims upon his wife. In fact, should he go so far as to make
demands contrary to the law of God, she has the duty to resist him
with all gentleness but also with the necessary firmness. Rightly
understood, then, the wife's submission to her husband is not at all
demeaning. Moreover, to obey is never to descend but to ascend.
Let husband and wife strive not so much to equal each other as to be
worthy of each other. Let the husband put into the exercise of his
authority the reserve and prudence which win confidence and let the
wife strive to be an accomplished woman not masculine but feminine.
The interesting character of the home is not a man, a woman, but the
couple; not an individual, but the family, the harmonious development
of the family cell; not duality as such but the advance in common of the two.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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on your Mobile <*}}}><
<*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/wordpress/>Half the Kingdom!
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<*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the Kingdom! Main Site
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Kingdom! By the by <*}}}><
Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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