1642. Christ is the source of this grace. “Just as of old God encountered his people with a covenant of love and fidelity, so our Savior, the spouse of the Church, now encounters Christian spouses through the sacrament of Matrimony.”147 Christ dwells with them, gives them the strength to take up their crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another’s burdens, to “be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ,”148 and to love one another with supernatural, tender, and fruitful love. In the joys of their love and family life he gives them here on earth a foretaste of the wedding feast of the Lamb:
How can I ever express the happiness of a marriage joined by the Church, strengthened by an offering, sealed by a blessing, announced by angels, and ratified by the Father? . . . How wonderful the bond between two believers, now one in hope, one in desire, one in discipline, one in the same service! They are both children of one Father and servants of the same Master, undivided in spirit and flesh, truly two in one flesh. Where the flesh is one, one also is the spirit.149
Aprofunde seus conhecimentos
148. Are there other names and images with which the Bible speaks about the Church?
281. In what way does the Church participate in the eucharistic sacrifice?
131. What is the saving meaning of the Resurrection?
32. In what way is the faith of the Church one faith alone?
547. Is there a prayer of Mary in the Gospel?
237. From where do the sacramental signs come?
Acesse nossos estudos biblicos:
What is the significance of David’s song of thanksgiving to God in 2 Samuel 22?
How can wisdom protect us from evil, as revealed in Wisdom 7:28-29?
What does the Song of Songs teach us about the search for the loved one?
What does the image of the river of life in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 47) represent?
