There is an ancient Greek myth about the androgynous human being, told by Plato in his Symposium. According to the story, human beings were originally imagined as having two faces, four arms and four legs, and as being extraordinarily powerful. They became proud and even challenged the gods. Zeus, fearing their strength, divided them into two. From then on, each half longed for the other half and spent its life searching for reunion. This is a beautiful human image of the longing for companionship, belonging and completeness. Of course, this is a myth, not the Christian account of the origin of marriage. The Bible gives us something much deeper: marriage is not simply the search for one's “missing half”; it is God's gift and covenant in which two persons freely give themselves to one another.
The biblical writer expresses this profound human longing in the creation account. In the beginning God creates the heavens and the earth. The earth is formless and empty, darkness covers the deep, and the Spirit of God moves over the waters (Gen 1:1-2). God gradually brings order and beauty into creation: light, sky, land and sea, plants, the sun and moon, birds, fish and animals. Then comes the crown of creation: the human person. Genesis tells us, “God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:27). Human beings are therefore created not merely to exist but to enter into relationship—with God and with one another.
Then Genesis gives us a more intimate picture of the first human relationship. “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner” (Gen 2:18). God brings the animals to Adam, but among all the creatures there is no one who corresponds to him in the deepest sense. Finally, God creates woman, and Adam cries out:
“This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh” (Gen 2:23).
And Genesis immediately gives the great principle of marriage: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). Jesus himself later refers to this passage when teaching about marriage (Mt 19:4-6; Mk 10:6-9). Marriage, therefore, is not an invention of society. It is rooted in God's creative plan.
The reflections of early humanity and the testimony of Scripture tell us how sacred marriage is. It is a union willed by the Creator and therefore deserves reverence. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes marriage as a covenant by which a man and a woman establish a partnership of the whole of life, ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children. Between baptized persons, Christ has raised this natural covenant to the dignity of a sacrament. Marriage is therefore not merely a contract signed by two people; it is a covenant made before God.
The Church attaches particular importance to Jesus' presence at the wedding feast of Cana. His first public sign in John's Gospel takes place at a wedding (Jn 2:1-11). That is significant. Jesus could have chosen a synagogue, a desert, a mountain or a royal palace for his first sign. Instead, he chooses a wedding feast. The wine runs short, the family faces embarrassment, Mary notices the need, Jesus intervenes, and the water becomes wine. The Church sees in Cana a beautiful confirmation of the goodness of marriage and a sign that Christ desires to be present within the ordinary joys and difficulties of married life.
A good marriage is therefore a mystery on many levels. St. Paul says in Ephesians 5:32, “This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.” Christian marriage points beyond itself. The faithful love of husband and wife becomes a visible sign of Christ's faithful love for his Church. St. Paul therefore does not reduce marriage to romance. He says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Eph 5:25). The model is not simply “How much can I get from my spouse?” but “How much can I give?”
Marriage has both personal and social implications. At the personal level, we can understand it as a union involving the physical, mental and spiritual dimensions of two people. In other words, marriage is a union of two bodies, two minds and two spirits.
First of all, marriage is a union of two bodies. Genesis says that the woman is given to the man and that the two become “one flesh” (Gen 2:24). This physical union is not merely biological. In Christian marriage, the body itself speaks a language of total self-giving: “I belong to you, and you belong to me.” St. Paul reminds married couples that their bodies are not simply private possessions but are caught up in this mutual self-giving (1 Cor 7:3-5).
During the marriage ceremony, therefore, husband and wife make a solemn promise before God and the community. They promise to remain together for better and for worse, for richer and for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death. It is a promise for life, not a promise for as long as life remains convenient.
But let us honestly ask ourselves: Is this vow always kept as sacredly as it was spoken?
At a cocktail party, one woman said to another, “Aren't you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?” The woman replied, “Yes. I married the wrong man!”
That joke is funny because it touches a painful truth. Sometimes people enter marriage expecting the other person to remain permanently romantic, permanently patient, permanently attractive, permanently understanding and permanently agreeable. But marriage brings two imperfect people together. The wedding ceremony does not magically remove selfishness. The sacrament gives grace to help us overcome it.
After a quarrel, a wife said to her husband, “You know, I was a fool when I married you.” The husband replied, “Yes, dear, but I was in love and didn't notice!”
We laugh, but marriage requires adjustment, tolerance, patience and understanding. Two independent individuals come together and must learn to become one without destroying the individuality of either person. St. Paul gives a beautiful description of this attitude: “With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:2-3).
We find many heroic examples in society of couples who uphold the vows they made at the altar. Kaley's husband was diagnosed with cancer. The family entered a period of fear and confusion. During his rigorous chemotherapy, Kaley discovered that sometimes love does not require spectacular heroism. She remembered what he needed during those difficult days: food, television shows he enjoyed, and above all, her presence. She described it simply: “I wasn't super wife. I was me, and I was at his side.”
What a beautiful understanding of marriage! Sometimes the greatest expression of love is not a grand speech. It is sitting beside the hospital bed. It is driving someone to treatment. It is preparing a meal when you are tired. It is holding a hand. It is saying, “I am here.”
That is what the marriage vow means: “in sickness and in health.” Jesus himself teaches us the value of such compassionate presence: “I was sick and you took care of me” (Mt 25:36). Love becomes most credible when it remains present during suffering.
In the face of adversity, therefore, sometimes it is not complex heroic action that is needed, but personal, loving, reassuring presence. Adam's words become meaningful: “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” Your spouse's suffering cannot simply be somebody else's problem. The two have become one flesh.
Unfortunately, we also find the opposite extreme: husbands abandoning wives when they become seriously ill, wives abandoning husbands when their careers collapse, spouses withdrawing when financial problems appear, or one partner disappearing emotionally when the other needs support most. The vow “in sickness and in health” is tested precisely when sickness and hardship arrive.
Secondly, marriage is a union of two minds. Two individuals with different educational backgrounds, different interests, different hobbies, different temperaments, different families, different food habits and different ways of looking at life come together with a decision to live together.
For many generations, the father of the family made most decisions and communicated them to everyone else. Today family life is different. Husband and wife often work, make financial decisions together, raise children together and share responsibilities. This requires genuine partnership.
There is an old joke that illustrates the change. A few years ago, we used to see a wife holding the hand of her husband and walking behind him while crossing a dangerous road. Today, perhaps we see the wife dragging the husband behind her while crossing the road!
Benjamin Franklin once offered humorous advice for marriage: “Keep your eyes wide open before marriage, half shut afterwards.” The point is not that we should become blind to serious faults, but that marriage requires us to stop constantly auditing the other person's weaknesses. If every mistake is recorded and every failure is remembered, the marriage becomes a courtroom.
There is a story about a man who inserted an advertisement in the classifieds: “Wife wanted.” The next day he received a hundred letters. They all said the same thing: “You can have mine!”
We laugh because marriage can sometimes become a competition in which each spouse thinks, “My problems are caused by you.” But Christian marriage asks a different question: “How can we solve this together?”
Even the Bible recognizes that human beings need patience with one another. “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude” (1 Cor 13:4). And St. James tells us, “Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” (Jas 1:19). Imagine if every married couple put those three phrases on the refrigerator: quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger.
There is another humorous story about an old lady who was caught shoplifting. Before the judge, she explained that she was hungry and had stolen a can of peaches. The judge asked how many peaches were in the can. She said six. The judge sentenced her to six days in jail, one day for each peach. Then he asked whether anyone wanted to say anything. Her husband stood up and said, “Your Honour, she also stole a can of peas.”
It is funny—but it also illustrates something important. Sometimes spouses remember every mistake the other person has ever made. They keep a mental account book. “You forgot my birthday in 2019.” “Yes, but you forgot our anniversary in 2021.” “And what about what you said at your sister's house five years ago?”
Marriage cannot survive if every argument becomes an archaeological excavation.
We often hear humorous observations about differences between men and women. Some of these observations are stereotypes rather than scientific rules, so we should not treat them as universal truths. Every husband and every wife is different. Yet there are real differences in temperament, communication and emotional expression, and understanding these differences can help couples.
The first humorous observation is that women remember everything and men sometimes remember selectively. We should be careful about claims that women necessarily have superior memory because of a particular brain structure; people differ greatly, and memory depends on many factors. But anyone who has been married knows that one spouse can remember a conversation from five years ago with remarkable detail while the other says, “Did we have that conversation?”
Then comes the old Adam and Eve joke. Adam stayed out late a few nights, and Eve became suspicious.
“You're running around with another woman—admit it!” she demanded.
“What other woman?” Adam asked. “You're it!”
That night Adam was asleep when Eve began poking him.
“What are you doing?”
“Counting your ribs.”
The lesson is simple: trust is essential. Suspicion, secrecy and dishonesty slowly poison intimacy. Scripture says, “Let marriage be held in honour by all, and let the marriage bed be kept undefiled” (Heb 13:4). Trust is not built through surveillance; it is built through truthfulness.
The second humorous observation is that women feel while men use logic. Again, this should not be treated as a scientific law. Both men and women possess emotion and reason. Yet couples often have different ways of processing situations. One person may immediately want to talk about feelings; the other may want to solve the practical problem.
Someone once gave this humorous advice: “To be happy with a man, understand him a lot and love him a little. To be happy with a woman, love her a lot and don't try to understand her at all!”
It is a joke, not a theology of marriage! The Christian answer is better: love one another enough to keep learning one another.
The third observation is that men and women may approach problem-solving differently. Some people immediately try to isolate the problem, identify facts and find a solution. Others need to talk through the problem, express feelings and understand the wider context before looking for a solution. Neither approach is automatically superior.
This explains why one spouse may say, “I don't need a solution right now; I need you to listen,” while the other replies, “I am listening! I have already found three solutions!”
Sometimes the best gift a husband can give is not a solution but an attentive ear. Sometimes the best gift a wife can give is not another ten-minute explanation but permission for her husband to process the issue quietly. “Be quick to listen” (Jas 1:19) is good advice for both.
The fourth observation concerns conflict. Some people withdraw when they are angry. Others want to talk immediately. Some need silence to think; others interpret silence as rejection. These differences can create a cycle: one pursues conversation, the other withdraws; the more one pursues, the more the other withdraws.
A couple once went out to dinner to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary. On the way home, the wife noticed a tear in her husband's eye and asked, “Are you getting sentimental because we are celebrating fifty wonderful years together?”
He replied, “No. I was thinking about the time before our wedding. Your father threatened me with a shotgun and said he'd have me thrown in jail for fifty years if I didn't marry you. Tomorrow I would have been a free man!”
That is a joke—but after fifty years, the fact that they were still together was the real punchline. A marriage is not successful because there are no disagreements. It is successful because the couple learns how to move through disagreements without destroying the relationship.
St. Paul gives the remedy: “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:14). And Proverbs says, “A capable wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels” (Prov 31:10). The same principle applies to the husband: a faithful husband is a treasure. Marriage should make each spouse feel, “I have received a precious gift from God.”
This brings us to the third dimension: marriage is a union of two persons at the spiritual level.
Christian marriage is not simply about living in the same house, sharing expenses and raising children. It is about helping one another become holy. Husband and wife are called to become companions on the journey toward God. They are not merely romantic partners; they are spiritual friends.
The Song of Solomon celebrates the strength of faithful love: “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it” (Song 8:7). The deepest Christian love is not controlled by changing moods. It is a decision to remain faithful.
Marriage can become a school of holiness because every day it asks us to practise patience, forgiveness, sacrifice, generosity, humility and fidelity. It is easy to love someone when everything is pleasant. The Christian vocation is to love even when love costs something.
The Bible says, “Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (Col 3:13). Forgiveness is not pretending that nothing happened. It is refusing to allow yesterday's wound to control tomorrow's relationship.
This is why praying together and praying individually for one's spouse is one of the most powerful ways of strengthening a marriage. A husband who kneels before God and says, “Lord, bless my wife,” will gradually find it harder to treat her carelessly. A wife who says, “Lord, help my husband become the man you want him to be,” begins to see him not merely through the lens of irritation but through the eyes of grace.
The spiritual dimension of marriage is beautifully illustrated by the saints.
We have the Holy Family: Mary and Joseph. They faced uncertainty, poverty, danger, migration and misunderstanding, yet they remained obedient to God. Joseph accepted Mary when he did not understand everything (Mt 1:18-24). Mary treasured God's words in her heart (Lk 2:19, 51). Their family was not free from difficulty; it was a family that learned to trust God within difficulty.
We also meet Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist. Luke tells us that they were “righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord” (Lk 1:6). Their story reminds us that a couple can remain faithful even while carrying long years of disappointment. Their prayer eventually became a place where God's promise unfolded.
Joachim and Anne are traditionally honoured as the parents of Mary. Their story comes from Christian tradition rather than from the canonical books of Scripture, but they have become powerful examples in Catholic devotion of parents who entrusted family life to God.
The New Testament gives us another married couple: Aquila and Priscilla. They worked together as tentmakers and opened their home to the Christian community. Paul mentions them several times (Acts 18:2-3, 18-19, 26; Rom 16:3-5; 1 Cor 16:19). They instructed Apollos more accurately in the faith (Acts 18:24-26). What a beautiful picture of a married couple serving God together! Their home became a place of Christian mission.
The Church also gives us many examples of married couples who helped one another toward holiness. Among them are St. Louis and St. Zélie Martin, the parents of St. Thérèse of Lisieux. They initially desired religious vocations, but God led them into marriage. Their marriage became their path to holiness. They understood that they could become saints not despite marriage but through marriage. In 2015 they became the first spouses to be canonized as a married couple.
Another extraordinary example is Blessed Luigi Beltrame Quattrocchi and Blessed Maria Corsini. In 2001, they became the first married couple in the history of the Church to be beatified together. Pope John Paul II presented their life as evidence that holiness can be lived together as husband and wife, through family life, parenthood and sacramental grace.
They had four children, and their family life was deeply marked by faith and service. Their story gives us an important message: holiness is not reserved for priests and religious. A husband can become holy by being a faithful husband. A wife can become holy by being a faithful wife. Parents can become holy by raising their children in love. Ordinary family duties can become extraordinary acts of love when they are offered to God.
There are many other holy couples in Christian tradition. St. Gregory Nazianzen and his wife Nonna were the parents of three children who became saints: Gorgonia, Caesarius and Gregory Nazianzen. St. Vincent Madelgarius and St. Waldetrudis belonged to a family in which several members were honoured as saints. St. Isidore the Farmer and his wife St. María de la Cabeza became an example of holiness in ordinary agricultural life. These examples remind us that holiness is not necessarily dramatic. Sometimes holiness looks like going to work, preparing food, caring for children, forgiving one's spouse and praying together.
Perhaps you know such a couple. Maybe it is your parents. Maybe your grandparents. Maybe an elderly couple in your parish who have quietly remained faithful for fifty or sixty years. They may never have written a book, preached a sermon or appeared on television. Yet they have preached a Gospel with their lives.
This leads us naturally to many challenges facing married couples today.
The first challenge is communication and emotional distance.
Many couples live under the same roof but in different emotional worlds. They speak about bills, children, schedules, shopping and work, but rarely speak about their hearts. Technology can make this worse. A couple can sit together at dinner while each person is looking at a separate screen.
The remedy is intentional conversation. Couples need time without phones, television or interruptions. Ask: “How are you really doing?” “What are you worried about?” “What can I do for you?” “Is there anything I have done that has hurt you?”
St. James gives the principle: “Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger” (Jas 1:19). Pope Francis has repeatedly encouraged married couples to use three simple words: “May I?”, “Thank you,” and “I'm sorry.” These little words can prevent large wounds.
Another challenge is financial pressure and competing priorities.
Money is one of the areas in which differences become very visible. One spouse may save; another may spend. One may want security; another may want immediate enjoyment. Work may consume so much time that the marriage receives only the leftovers.
The solution is not merely earning more money. It is developing a shared vision. Couples should discuss finances openly, make important decisions together, distinguish needs from wants and avoid secrecy about money. Jesus reminds us, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21).
The family should never become a place where everyone is financially supported but emotionally neglected. A child may remember an expensive gift for a week, but may remember a father's presence for a lifetime.
Technology, distractions and the loss of presence is another challenge.
A smartphone can become the third person in a marriage. Sometimes the problem is not adultery with another human being but an affair with a screen. A husband comes home and immediately looks at his phone. A wife is speaking while he is scrolling. Children are talking while both parents are checking messages.
The solution is to create sacred spaces: meals without phones, time together without screens, regular conversation and perhaps a technology-free evening each week. The Bible says, “For everything there is a season” (Eccl 3:1). There must also be a time to put the phone down and look into the eyes of the person God gave you.
Interference from families is another great challenge.
Marriage joins not only two people but two histories, two cultures and often two families. Different expectations about parents, money, children, religion, holidays and household responsibilities can create tension.
Genesis says, “A man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife” (Gen 2:24). This does not mean abandoning parents. It means establishing a new primary family bond. Parents should be honoured (Ex 20:12), but husband and wife must learn to make decisions together.
Parenting can also become a battlefield. One parent becomes strict, the other becomes permissive. One says yes, the other says no. Children quickly discover which parent is easier to negotiate with!
The solution is not to compete for the children's affection but to cooperate for their good. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (Eph 6:1), and immediately St. Paul reminds parents not to provoke their children but to bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord (Eph 6:4).
In all the challenges, the remedy is remarkably similar: communication, patience, prayer, forgiveness, shared responsibility and Christ at the centre.
Pope Francis has beautifully encouraged married couples not to allow conflicts to become permanent wounds. He reminds couples of the importance of making peace after arguments and says that mutual forgiveness grows through prayer. He encourages spouses to turn together toward Christ because human love is weak and needs the strength of Christ's faithful love.
And we must add an important word of realism. Not every marital problem is a “small misunderstanding.” Abuse, violence, coercive control, serious addiction and infidelity can require professional, pastoral and sometimes legal intervention. “Forgive” does not mean “remain in danger.” Christian love seeks truth, justice, safety and healing. The Church herself calls for accompaniment of wounded families rather than pretending that wounds do not exist.
Marriage also has a social dimension. It is, in an important sense, a union of two families. Two people who grew up in different homes, with different cultures, religious practices, values, expectations and traditions, now become one family. The greater the diversity, the greater the need for patience and mutual respect.
There is an old humorous story about a zealous bishop who discovered an indigenous community in the Yukon where Christian baptism, confirmation and marriage had not yet been formally recorded. He enthusiastically began baptizing and confirming people and even hurried to bless the marriages of couples.
Later the tribal chief told him that the community had never had so much fun. The bishop asked which part they enjoyed most.
The chief smiled and said, “We like marriages. All got new wives!”
It is an old joke, and certainly not a model of Christian marriage! But it gives us an opportunity to remember that marriage is not a game of exchanging people. Marriage requires a genuine covenant between two free persons who are prepared to give themselves faithfully.
Today marriages suffer from many wounds: power struggles, abusive situations, emotional distance, selfishness, immaturity, addictions, financial pressure and infidelity. But sometimes the deepest wound is more basic: couples do not understand what marriage is. If marriage is understood merely as “I will stay as long as you make me happy,” the relationship will collapse whenever happiness becomes difficult.
But if marriage is understood as a covenant— “I give myself to you, and together we will walk toward God”—then difficulties acquire a different meaning.
Jesus was very clear about marriage. When the Pharisees questioned him about divorce, Jesus brought them back to God's original plan:
“But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘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, let no one separate” (Mk 10:6-9; cf. Mt 19:4-6).
Jesus acknowledges human hardness of heart, but he calls his disciples back to God's intention. Marriage is not merely about avoiding divorce. It is about learning the art of covenant love.
For Catholics, marriage also involves the Church's requirements concerning valid consent. The spouses must be free to marry; they must freely exchange their consent; they must intend a lifelong, faithful marriage open to children; and Catholic marriage must ordinarily follow the required canonical form, including the presence of an authorized Church minister and witnesses.
But beyond every legal requirement stands something much more beautiful: the free “yes” of two human beings who say before God, “I choose you.”
And that “yes” must be renewed every day.
A couple does not remain married only because of what they said twenty years ago. They remain married because, twenty years later, they continue to say it with their lives.
The wedding vow made at the altar should become a daily decision. The words “for better, for worse; for richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health” are not merely ceremonial phrases. They are a programme for Christian life.
St. Paul says, “Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal 6:2). Sometimes the burden carried by one spouse becomes lighter because the other simply says, “Let me carry this with you.”
Think again of the holy couples. Louis and Zélie Martin did not become saints because their marriage was free from suffering. Luigi and Maria Beltrame Quattrocchi did not become holy because their family had no difficulties. Aquila and Priscilla did not serve the Gospel because life was always comfortable. They became witnesses because they allowed their marriage to become a place where faithfulness, sacrifice and love could grow.
This is the sublime vocation of marriage: not merely to make one another happy, but to help one another become holy.
The world often celebrates spectacular love stories. Christianity celebrates faithful love stories.
The world asks, “How exciting is your relationship?”
Jesus asks, “How faithful is your love?”
The world says, “Follow your feelings.”
Jesus says, “Take up your cross and follow me” (Lk 9:23).
That does not mean that marriage should be miserable. Quite the opposite. Christian marriage is meant to be a place of joy. At Cana, Jesus did not merely tolerate the wedding feast; he saved the wine! He wants marriage to have joy, laughter, friendship, tenderness and celebration.
So let husbands and wives laugh together. Tell jokes. Eat together. Walk together. Celebrate birthdays. Remember anniversaries. Say thank you for ordinary things. Do not wait for a crisis before expressing love.
Pope Francis has emphasized three little expressions that can transform family life: “May I?” “Thank you.” “I'm sorry.”
“May I?” expresses respect.
“Thank you” expresses gratitude.
“I'm sorry” expresses humility.
A couple who prays together learns to place their problems before someone greater than themselves. They discover that marriage is not simply a partnership of two but a covenant in which Jesus is invited to stand at the centre.
And when the years pass, when the children grow up, when the house becomes quieter, when the hair turns grey, the couple who remained faithful can look at one another and say again the words of Adam:
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.”
The Church teaches that Jesus is not a distant spectator at the wedding. He is the one who gives sacramental grace to married couples and accompanies them throughout their lives. The marriage sacrament is not exhausted on the wedding day; its grace accompanies the spouses throughout their journey.
Therefore, never underestimate the holiness of an ordinary married couple.
A husband faithfully going to work can be an act of love.
A wife patiently caring for an elderly parent can be an act of love.
A couple struggling through financial difficulties without abandoning each other can be an act of love.
A husband holding his wife's hand in a hospital can be an act of love.
A wife forgiving her husband's mistake can be an act of love.
A couple kneeling together before God can be an act of love.
A family eating together and laughing together can be an act of love.
These ordinary acts, repeated for years, can become extraordinary in the eyes of God.
Marriage is not simply a road to happiness; it is a road to holiness. It is not merely about finding the right person; it is about becoming the right person for the person God has entrusted to you. It is not about asking every day, “What am I getting from this relationship?” but asking, “What am I giving to this relationship?”
Finally, let every married couple remember the words of Jesus: “What God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mk 10:9).
Let them renew their commitment every morning and especially during difficult moments:
“I take you as my spouse,
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love you and honour you,
until death do us part.”
The greatness of the marriage vow is not that we make it once. The greatness is that we live it again and again.
Then the husband will be able to look at his wife and say with Adam:
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh.”
And both husband and wife will be able to place their lives in the hands of Jesus and believe:
“What God has joined together, no one can separate.”
May every Christian marriage become a little Cana where Jesus is welcomed, a little Nazareth where faithfulness is learned, and a little Church where love becomes visible.
May their homes become places of forgiveness rather than accusation, prayer rather than resentment, conversation rather than silence, service rather than selfishness, and laughter rather than bitterness.
And may God bless every married couple, strengthen every wounded marriage, comfort those who are suffering, guide those who are struggling, and give every husband and wife the grace to discover that the greatest gift they can give one another is not perfection, but faithful love.
-Satish Selvarance