Christ and the Church: Foundational to Marriage

On Sunday, Cardinal George posted an article entitled Reflections on “Chicago values” on the Catholic Chicago Blog (hosted by the Archdiocese of Chicago). I commend him for this well-written article, hope you will take the time to read it, and pray it will spark some informed conversation on this topic.

However, there is one statement I wish he would reconsider:

“The Church, because Jesus raised the marital union to the level of symbolizing his own union with his Body the Church, has an interest in determining which marital unions are sacramental and which are not.”

The Church indeed has an interest in marriage. After all, God instituted and sanctions it. But Jesus did not raise the marital union to the level of symbolizing His own union with the Church. Just the opposite. The union of man and woman was, from the very beginning, a reflection of Christ and His bride (the Church). The Church existed the moment man and woman were created. There was the Son of God with His bride. Then God joined the first man and first woman together, and their union reflected that of the Son of God and His bride.

This is why Saint Paul writes:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. [Ephesians 1:3-4]

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of His body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. [Ephesians 5:31-32]

The first passage reminds us that God chose us—the Church—in Christ before the foundation of the world (i.e. before He brought the first man and first woman together). The second passage reminds us that the relationship of man and woman in holy matrimony is based on the relationship of Christ and His bride (the Church). It is not the other way around.

The relationship of Christ and His bride is foundational. The relationship of husband and wife is simply a reflection of that.

Christ—the Son of God—became man. The Church is woman. And God the Father has joined these two together as one. That is why marriage is exclusively between one man and one woman.