A Source of Grace – Members Content
“Give way to one another out of reverence for Christ”
Eph 5:21
St Paul’s letter to the Ephesians paints a vision of husband and wife tenderly giving themselves to each other in total self-donation. Husband and wife desire to communicate God’s life-giving love to the other through their own love. They are inspired to love passionately, generously, and with true humility, by the example of Christ.
“We read ‘Wives be subject to your husbands as to the Lord.’ When he expresses himself in this way, the author does not intend to say that the husband is the ‘master’ of the wife… Husband and wife are, in fact, ‘subject to one another,’ mutually subordinated to one another. The source of this reciprocal submission lies in Christian [holiness], and its expression is love. Love makes the husband simultaneously subject to the wife, and subject in this to the Lord himself, as the wife is to the husband.”
TOB, n89. pg 473-474.
A Living Sign & A Source of Grace
Married couples are thus called to model their relationship on Christ’s love for the Church. To be mutually subject to one another.
This can at times be challenging for even the most loving couples. However, God empowers the Sacrament of Matrimony with the grace spouses need to live this vision. ‘Graces’ are the spiritual help given by God that allow us to live our Sacrament fully. When it seems beyond our personal ability to forgive or go the extra distance in generosity for our spouse, God’s grace is available to us.
Anything that will advance our unity as a couple is God’s will. We have only to ask for His assistance.
Thus a Sacrament is not only a sign of God’s presence, it is also a source of grace. It points us in the direction of God’s love, and gives us the means to accomplish it.
“The Sacrament is a sign of grace, and it is an efficacious sign. It does not merely indicate and express grace in a visible way, in the manner of a sign, but produces grace.”
Theology of the Body, n 87. pg 486.
