marriage in its perfection

When two people commit themselves to live their lives together, a new reality comes into existence. “They become one flesh,” Jesus says. That means that their unity creates a new sacred place. 

Many relationships are like interlocking fingers. Two people cling to each other as two hands interlocked in fear. They connect because they cannot survive individually. But as they interlock they also realize that they cannot take away each other’s loneliness. And it is then that friction arises and tension increases. Often a breakup is the final result. 

But God calls man and woman into a different relationship. It is a relationship that looks like two hands that fold in an act of prayer. The fingertips touch, but the hands can create a space, like a little tent. Such a space is the space created by love, not by fear. Marriage is creating a new, open space where God’s love can be revealed to the “stranger”: the child, the friend, the visitor. This marriage becomes a witness to God’s desire to be among us as a faithful friend.