Faith and reason
"Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth"
Being a Married Couple: Being Sacrament for One Another
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I have found this meditation from Fr. Armand Nigro on marriage and thought to share with you:



Being Sacrament for One Another from Fr. Armand Nigro, SJ


 


Christianity is profoundly immersed into matter. It is the Word of God constantly becoming flesh in human life. Christian marriages especially reassure us of the sacredness of human bodies. It is easier to understand something of the meaning (mystery) of God’s presence in marriage because Christian spouses are living Sacraments for each other. To be baptized into Christ means to share the life of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It means Jesus really lives in us to be married to a sacred person/body who can continually love that living risen Jesus into you, and into whom you can creatively love that same Jesus. That does not make any sense to unbelievers. It even sounds weird and unreal to some Catholics, but to those who believe, it is as real as their breath and as close as the touch of their spouses. To feel the pulse in your wrist is to feel the throb of human life and to be reminded that each heartbeat is God’s free gift. To look into your spouse’s eyes, to hear that voice and feel that skin is to see and hear and touch a living Sacrament - a personal sign that Jesus is alive for you and revealing Himself and reassuring you of His continual concern and forgiveness and unselfish love.


Our Lord is not in competition for the affection and devotion of spouses. Instead, He wants to give married people what no human or a million humans can possibly have of themselves alone – that is, power to co-love into their spouses a deeper share in Eternal Life. I say co-love because Jesus is present in them, cooperating with them in every life-giving smile or look or embrace. This is a continual incarnation of God into human life. A deep conviction of this may not put more food on the table or pay off bills or pacify rebellious children, but it can and will raise a Christian marriage to the level God intends for it. It can and will give couples the greatest meaning of their married lives. It can and will open up to them depths and dimensions of each other and of their relationship that somehow merge into the living God. God started something when Mary’s baby first let Himself be seen and touched.


That something still continues whenever Christians see and touch one another, especially in marriage.


(“Meditation” from the May 2006 Newsletter of The Ministry Institute at Mater Dei at this address


http://www.gonzaga.edu/Campus-Resources/Offices-and-Services-A-Z/Ministry-Ins... )
2007-10-04 21:14:46 GMT


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