The power of conjugal love.

Believing Christians need to be aware that Jesus died and rose again for their marital union. There will be crosses and crosses in their life together, despite the love they feel for each other. They are to remember the words of Jesus, “Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me.” (Mt 16:24).

We are, after all, marked by original sin. And spouses should often recall the words they said when they celebrated the sacrament of marriage, “Do you promise before Almighty God that you will be a faithful husband to her, that you will be a faithful wife to him, that you will not leave her, either in happiness or in unhappiness, sickness or health, and that you will love and honor her all the days of your life?”

For we read in Scripture, “What therefore God hath gathered, let not man put asunder.” (Mk 10:9). It is a wellspring of new satisfaction for God and us. The Church looks at every marriage with joy, love, gratitude, and happiness. In the love of the spouses, we discern the passion with which Christ Himself and the Church are endowed. Satisfaction is all the more significant, the more extraordinary, man’s love for woman and woman for man. From today’s Gospel on marriage, we should want to take the vital truth that a good marriage, a lasting and faithful union of man and woman, was and is possible. Whatever is done. Why? Because a woman is the ” bone of my bones” to a man. Because man is called for partnership, both biologically and psychologically. Because God so wills it that the two be His through marriage. And also because Jesus, for the salvation order and the New Testament era, affirmed it. The marriage problems relate to the whole complex of issues in a person’s life.

A wealthy Roman woman once asked Rabbi Yossi Chalafta, “What does God do all day long?” The rabbi answered her: “He brings married couples together. He chooses who is to marry whom. This man, this woman, this man’s wife, and so on.” “There’s nothing special about that,” the Roman woman remarked, “I can do that too. I can put a thousand couples together in one day.” The Rabbi said nothing to this. When the mistress returned to her palace, she had all the male, and enslaved women summoned and married and married to each other. She commanded: “You take that one, and you, in turn, take that one.” That night, almost all the married couples quarreled and fought. The following day they went to their mistress. One enslaved person had his head smashed in, another enslaved person had a black eye, and another enslaved person had his nose broken… The mistress summoned Rabbi Jossi. She told him what had happened and declared: “You were right. I see that only God can bring a man and a woman together.” Then a voice from heaven came: “This is not easy even for me.”

And everyone, in good faith, must say that what the Church teaches and upholds is correct, that she disapproves of divorce. Young people are not evil. … How many of them suffer for their parents…