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 EUCHARIST (1)
A YOUNG lady before her marriage wrote to her future husband asking
him to go to Holy Communion with her as often as possible; "The
Eucharist is the sacrament of those who are engaged to be married
because it is the Sacrament of Love." So impressed was the young man
by her thought and so much good did he derive from it, that he
engraved the sentence on her tombstone when she was taken from him by
an early death.
Marriage and the Eucharist. . . how true that they are both sacraments of love.
What does love require?
Love expresses itself by these three needs: the need of the presence
of the beloved, the need of union, the need of exchange of
sacrifices. Each of the two sacraments satisfies this triple need.
Need of presence. In the Eucharist: "This is My Body." God present in
us in His divine nature by sanctifying grace received at baptism
found the means to unite to Himself a human nature: "The Word was
made flesh." He was certain that under that new form He would find a
way to make Himself present to humanity. Therefore, the Eucharist.
In marriage: Needless to mention the yearning the couple have to be
together. If they talk, it will only be to tell each other how glad
they are to be near each other. They may say nothing, but then in the
deep silence which envelops them their souls will be knit together,
they will commune and exchange the best of themselves. Silence
between lovers is often more eloquent than words; the following
advice of a Chinese sage to a young girl considering a proposal of
marriage evidenced judgment and experience:
"If he tells you, "I love you more than all the world," turn away
your head and nonchalantly fuss with your hair. If he tells you, "I
love you more than the golden rod in the temple," adjust the folds of
your dress and reproach him laughingly as if amused at his impiety.
"If he passes beneath your window on a white horse to say goodby
because he prefers to die by a thrust of the sword than to despair,
give him a flower and wish him a happy trip.
"But if he remains beside you, numb as a slave before a king and
clumsy to the point of spilling tea on your blue tablecloth, then
smile at him tenderly as you would for the one whom you wish to
accept for always."
Even though at the beginning of marriage, being together is unalloyed
joy and there is no need to urge cohabitation upon the newlyweds, it
can happen that in the long run unpleasantnesses arise; the charm of
being together wanes perhaps because faults show up more readily than
in the past or because the couple's concept of marriage was overly
romantic, not preparing them for the possible flaws in each other or
simply because a man will never be anything else but a man and a
woman never anything else but a woman, that is, two limited beings
who can not avoid discovering their limitations sooner or later.
No one is obliged to marry. But once married, cohabitation is a duty.
Canon Law states: "The spouses must observe the community of the
conjugal life." Saint Alphonsus says even more specifically, "The
married are bound to cohabitation in one house to the sharing of bed
and board." Separation regarding the last two points can for just
reasons, be permitted in certain cases. Grave reasons are necessary
to dispense husbands and wives from living under the same roof; there
is always the danger of scandal to be feared and, under the stress of
temptations which may arise, also the danger of transforming simple
separation of bodies into real divorce.
MARRIAGE AND THE EUCHARIST (2)
LOVE, which thrives on the mutual presence of the two who cherish
each other and yearn for each other, also seeks physical expression.
It is true for marriage; it is true for the Eucharist.
That physical expression is a need of love, both experience and the
most elementary psychology more than amply prove. Doesn't a mother
often say to her baby whom she is smothering with kisses, "I could
just eat you up," as if she vainly dreamed of being able to reincorporate it?
What is impossible to the mother is possible to Our Lord. He wanted
to give Himself to us as food not so much that we might incorporate
Him in ourselves as that He might incorporate us in Himself. In the
case of ordinary food, it is the one who eats who assimilates. In the
Eucharist, it is the Living Bread which assimilates us in Itself:
"Take and eat, this is My Body; take and drink, this is My Blood. If
you do not eat the Flesh of the Son of Man, you shall not have life
in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood shall have life everlasting."
The Eucharist requires that we take it and consume it. The Host is
not made for the eyes, to be seen, but to be eaten. It is not enough
to look and to adore; we must receive and assimilate: "Take and eat."
The Real Presence is already a great gift and to be present at
Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament a precious exercise which
the Church praises. But that is not the whole significance of the
Eucharist. The Eucharist demands communion, the common union . . .
and what a closely bound community . . . of two beings who love each
other, Christ and the Christian.
Because love is the ideal basis for the sacrament of matrimony,
marriage in its turn dreams of physical expression.
Since it is concerned with uniting not angelic but human natures,
that is, spirits within bodies, marriage, while it involves a union
of souls, also normally involves a union of bodies which should
facilitate the union of souls. It is the entire being of the one
which seeks to become united with the entire being of the other.
It can then readily be understood how in view of the particular
intimacy sought through bodily union, delicacy claims privacy. It is
a good act without question and willed by God who by His nature can
permit not even the shadow of sin. The Church, in the course of her
history, condemned those overly severe moralists who wanted to oblige
the married to go to confession before receiving Holy Communion if
they had previously had intercourse.
There is no question about the couple's right to all those marks of
affection and tenderness which normally accompany the generative act.
Still, between Christian husbands and wives, a wise modesty, not in
the least fearful, but decently reserved, will be the rule.
The strict right by which sin is measured is one thing; quite
different is the domain of perfection or even of imperfection which
extends far beyond that and which is properly the course of Christian
refinement.
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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!
Blog <*}}}><
<*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/>Half the Kingdom! Main Site
<*}}}>< <*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/by-the-by/>Half the
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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