Folia Theologica et Canonica 4. 26/18 (2015)
SACRA THEOLOGIA - Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem., A sacramental theology of the family: the unity and harmony of the sacramental order
128 SEBASTIAN WALSHE, O.PRAEM. ween marnage and the union of Christ with his Church.49 First, as the union between Christ and his Church was initiated by the sacrificial love of Christ, so also the union between husband and wife is initiated by the sacrificial love of the husband for his wife: “Christ loved the Church and handed himself over for her.“50 Second, as the husband is inseparably united to his wife, so Christ is inseparably united to his Church. Third, as a husband has only one wife, so Christ has only one Church. Fourth, as a husband and wife share in one life, so too Christ communicates his own life to the Church: “From his fullness we have all received.”51 Fifth, as the husband is the head of his wife, so Christ is the head of the Church.52 Sixth, as Christ in an act of love begets new faithful through and in his Church, so a husband in an act of love begets children through and in his wife. St. Paul uses many of these likenesses between marriage and the union of Christ to his Church in order to manifest how husbands and wives ought to relate to one another. Their marriage is intended by God to be a sign of this union of Christ to his Church, and therefore, this significance is the cause or purpose why husbands and wives ought to relate to one another in this way. The communion between husband and wife begins with the love of the husband. It is the young man who initiates a courtship and the young man who proposes marriage. This is not just a cultural convention: it is a natural inclination that is meant to signify the initiative of Christ’s love for his Church. St. John Chrysostom says that a husband should be willing to be cut into ten-thousand pieces for his wife.53 This is in imitation of Christ’s love for the Church. And the willingness to suffer for his wife does not only involve suffering at the hands of those outside, but even when it is his wife herself who is the cause of his suffering. For Christ died for us “while we were still sinners.”54 Christ suffered at the hands of those who were and would be members of his Church. In response to the love of her husband, the wife is called to be subordinate to her husband. This is a very unpopular teaching today, but it is inescapably revealed in the Scriptures: “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so 49 Cf. S. Thomae Aquinatis, Summa Theologica, Supp., q. 49 art. 2, ad. 4: "In the sacrament not only should indivision be understood, but also all those things which follow upon matrimony from the fact that it is a sign of the union of Christ and the Church.” 5(1 Eph 5:25; cf. 1 Jn4:19. 51 Jn 1:16. 52 Cf. Eph 5:22-24. 53 Homily 20 on Ephesians. 54 Rom 5:8.
