English
EspañolIf marriage makes the two spouses “one flesh,” the most intimate human union, it is due to God infusing it with the image and likeness of his Love, which unites the Father with the Son in the Holy Spirit. By loving each other, the spouses incarnate in their ordinary life the original source of their conjugal love, which is the communion of the Triune God.
Text
“When each spouse realizes that the other is not his or her own, but has a much more important master, the one Lord. No one but God can presume to take over the deepest and most personal core of the loved one; he alone can be the ultimate centre of their life (…) The space which each of the spouses makes exclusively for their personal relationship with God not only helps heal the hurts of life in common, but also enables the spouses to find in the love of God the deepest source of meaning in their own lives.” (The Joy of Love, n.320)
Commentary
Laura and Carlos got married two months ago. Carlos does not go to Mass, but Laura does. Before the marriage, they both agreed that they would arrange Sundays so that Laura could go to Mass, but Carlos has started making it difficult: “Let us go a trip first, and on the way back, you can go to Mass,” or “Why do we have to delay our plans so that you can go to Mass?” Laura decided to address this with him: “On this issue, I will not give in. We owe the happiness we are beginning to experience first and foremost to God. Have you ever thought that we are both in this world because of Him? Have you thought about everything He gives us daily and for which we ought to be thankful? If you do not want to go to Mass even to thank God for all that you receive from Him, then at the very least respect my decision to go on Sundays. Besides, it grieves me that you do not want to accompany me that you do not want to understand how much help both of us could receive for our marriage on Sundays if I did not attend Mass alone.”
