English
EspañolConjugal love consists not of only looking at each other. Above all, it is both of you looking in the same direction. In which direction? In the direction of your union to preserve its life, make it grow, and restore its weariness and wounds. That is the joint and unanimous project. At the heart of our union, to keep it alive, both of us are one.
Text
“Promising love forever is possible when we perceive a plan bigger than our own ideas and undertakings, a plan which sustains us and enables us to surrender our future entirely to the one we love.” (The Joy of Love, n.124)
Commentary
Veteran marriages, those who celebrate their golden wedding anniversary, have a lot to teach. They have sailed all the seas and fought off all the attacks. They have managed not to sink, to keep sailing, the crew united, the gallant bow cutting through the waves and defying the winds.
I have a conversation with Natalia a few days before her Golden Anniversary. She tells me: “I look back on these fifty years, and I can tell you several things. When I got married, I always thought it was forever. It never crossed my mind that it would be bad for me. I thought that whatever happened, Edgar and I could work things out together. “Together” is the experience of two people becoming a single union, their union, and keeping it alive is neither his nor her responsibility, but theirs.
I think back to when our four children were young, and we often did not sleep because we had to take care of the kids. And then, Edgar always helped me, especially with his sparks of good humor that made tiredness less exhausting. I remember the years when Edgar´s parents were sick, and he and I took care of them and spent the day between taking care of the kids, taking care of our house, and taking care of his parents. I think about when Edgar had a hard time working and I started selling sandwiches.
And remembering all this, do you know what I say to myself? That we would not have made it to our fiftieth year of marriage if it were not for the fact that since we got married, we trusted in God´s help, and we never stopped believing in that aid, because Jesus Christ, as in intimate and powerful accomplice, with his grace and mercy, always accompanied us in our marriage.”
