English
EspañolTo seek the unity of life, which is achieved through faithful and definitive love, is to live according to God’s plan. God, who is Love, does not want us broken and fragmented. He wants us to know and live in the union of love, as God himself is the communion of love of his Three Persons.
Text
“The sacrament of marriage is not a social convention, an empty ritual or merely the outward sign of a commitment. The sacrament is a gift given for the sanctification and salvation of the spouses, since “their mutual belonging is a real representation, through the sacramental sign, of the same relationship between Christ and the Church.” (The Joy of Love, n.72)
Commentary
The culture of today’s world seems to suggest that each spouse goes alone and on his own towards God and maintains a relationship with Him that is independent of the relationship with the spouse. An individualistic conception of life pushes us to seek happiness in individual fulfillment, first satisfying our own needs.
According to God’s plan, the couple goes towards Him united and experiences divine love by reciprocally feeling human love. The true goal is not that mirage of selfish happiness that so many uselessly pursue, but that UNITY in which the fullness of true joy resides, authentic joy transmitted to the family.
Jesus Christ the Bridegroom makes an act of presence, faithful and definitive, in the very intimacy of the union, strengthens its fidelity, with his graces instills in it the virtues of good and pleasing love, becomes its most intimate and powerful companion, transforms the whole conjugal life, with its days of bonanza and those of storm, into redemption and sanctification for the spouses themselves and their family environment.
