Sacramental marriage is a gift; spouses are able to share in God’s own life as they are called to the mission of making God’s faithful love known to the world. The mission of marriage is intimately tied to the source of grace that enlivens it.
Read on to the end of this post for 10+ ideas on how to be able to receive more of God’s life in your marriage!
At the outset of Jesus’ public life and ministry, he performs his first miracle–at Mary’s request–at a wedding feast. The Church has interpreted this miracle, overflowing with abundance, as a confirmation from Jesus Christ of the goodness of marriage. In his preaching, Jesus affirms that the plan for marriage–as an indissoluble union of man and woman–was the plan of the Creator from the beginning. To the crowds questioning him on the topic of marriage and divorce, he emphasizes that what God himself has spoken is true:
Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate.
This clear teaching on marriage, which aligns with God’s original plan for man and woman, is in contrast to the marriage laws of Moses, which allowed for divorce because of the hardness of man’s heart. Why now, after Jesus’ coming into the world, is the hardness of man’s heart something we trust can be overcome? This is a fair question– ask any married person you know: not everything changed just because Christ entered the world–spouses are not perfect and marriages are not free from conflict and hardship. Even in healthy marriages, spouses have the ability to hurt one another and let their brokenness cause problems in the relationship.
