If God were to design a test to help diagnose the root of any problems in a marriage, he might ask about three areas in a couple’s life together. Have both spouses left their old ways behind them? Have both spouses cleaved to one another in difficult times? Has the couple truly become one in their core beliefs and vision for life? Jeff walks through these questions, helping couples troubleshoot their marriages and more fully embrace God’s plan for their lives.
Shownotes
God’s Genius Bar for Marriage
- This vocation of marriage was written into us as humans.
- Either with God or another human.
- Marriage is not a human institution, it was designed by God.
- CCC 1603 – “The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper laws. . . . God himself is the author of marriage.”87 The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity,88 some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. “The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life.”
- God gave us the Catholic Church to be the “Genius Bar for Marriage.”
- It supports marriage by telling us it is a covenant, not a contract.
- It is an earthly symbol for God’s relationship with the Church.
- It is also a sacrament
- CCC 1601 – “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.”
- CCC 2335 – “Each of the two sexes is an image of the power and tenderness of God, with equal dignity though in a different way. The union of man and woman in marriage is a way of imitating in the flesh the Creator’s generosity and fecundity: “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.”121 All human generations proceed from this union.”
- God wants to use your marriage to demonstrate the fidelity of God to the Church.
- CCC 1602 – “Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of “the wedding-feast of the Lamb.”85 Scripture speaks throughout of marriage and its “mystery,” its institution and the meaning God has given it, its origin and its end, its various realizations throughout the history of salvation, the difficulties arising from sin and its renewal “in the Lord” in the New Covenant of Christ and the Church.”
- CCC 1638 – “From a valid marriage arises a bond between the spouses which by its very nature is perpetual and exclusive; furthermore, in a Christian marriage the spouses are strengthened and, as it were, consecrated for the duties and the dignity of their state by a special sacrament.”
- Marriage is a sign to the world of what we are called to – a sharing in God’s blessed life. (heaven)
- The Catholic Church tells us that marriage takes three.
- God, husband and wife.
- Married couples who follow the Church’s teaching will experience a love that is out of this world.
- It supports marriage by telling us it is a covenant, not a contract.
3 Things God’s Genius Bar Would Start with to Fix Your Troubled Marriage
- Genesis 2:23-25 – “23 Then the man said, ‘This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.’ 24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. 25 And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.”
- Jesus gave us an example of this:
- He left heaven.
- He cleaved to us.
- He became one with us.
- “A man shall leave his father and mother”
- Have both of you left your parents?
- Often one or both have not truly left mom and dad.
- Do you call your parents every time there is a problem in the marriage?
- Have you left old lifestyles?
- Old habits that cause issues in the relationship should be left behind.
- Have both of you left your parents?
- “He shall cleave to his wife”
- Are you pursuing each other?
- Or do you have separate lives?
- We need to find ways to cling to each other in every way.
- Are your dreams equally inclusive of both spouses?
- Is the dream broad enough?
- Are both of you strongly committed to the dream you have for your life?
- Do you need a date night, time alone during the day, or to make time to pray together?
- Are you pursuing each other?
- “They shall become one flesh”
- Body answers body, spirit answers spirit and soul answers soul forming earth’s closest relationship.
- A spouse is someone you can get naked with both physically and in your soul.
- The biggest thing everyone wants is someone they can be completely one with.
- How do you become one?
- Share everything – financially, physically and your dreams for life.
- Jesus gave us an example of this:
More Great Resources from Jeff
Find free blogs, videos, and resources about Scripture and the Catholic faith at http://biblestudyforcatholics.com/.
Find information and ideas to gather you family around the faith at Catholic Family Night.
Learn more about The Great Adventure Bible Timeline and preview any study for free.
For an easy way to transform your approach to reading Scripture, check out Jeff’s Bible Timeline Chart.
For an illustrated resource introducing God’s love story to children while helping them to understand how the Catholic Church is the body of Christ on Earth try The Great Adventure Storybook.
We’d Love to Hear from You
Do you have comments or questions for Jeff? Use the comment box below, or email Jeff at thejeffcavinsshow@ascensionpress.com. You may hear your question or comment in an upcoming podcast episode!
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