Marriage Part IV

Marriage: A Path to Eternal Life


Again, from that pamphlet I’ve been telling you about:

“Happiness in marriage is something which must be earned; it does not come as a free bonus with the marriage license. It must be worked for. It must be paid for with self-sacrifice. One might visualize marriage as a pyramid—with pleasure, joy and happiness forming two of the sides, and suffering, forbearance and forgiveness forming the other two—while love is the crowning apex of it all.
Even as suffering is part of every individual life, so it is also part of the life of every family. There are times when sickness enters the home and threatens the life of one of the members. Everyone knows what pain and anguish the entire family goes through then. There are times when the family finances are low. It is then that the parents have to save and stint and deny themselves many things they would like to have, just in order to be able to secure the bare necessities for their young ones. Love demands many sacrifices. But it is also rich in blessings for those who realize the true meaning of Christian charity. They need only to turn their eyes to the crucifix on the wall in their home and remember that Christ sacrificed Himself for love of us, even unto death upon the Cross.
With this imprint of God’s love upon their hearts, young couples embarking upon marriage have nothing to fear as long as they keep the Divine Commandments and the precepts of the Church. Their marriage will be blessed and joyful. It will not “go on the rocks” because it will be built upon the unshakable rock of faith and sacramental grace.
When young Tobias feared to take Sara as his wife because of what he had heard about the others who had married her, the Angel Raphael assured him: “Hear me, and I will show thee who they are over whom the devil can prevail. For they who in such manner receive matrimony as to shut out God from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their lust, as the horse and mule, which have not understanding, over them the devil hath power”. (Tob. 6:16-17)
Thus, married couples should remember that their most beautiful and most elevating duty toward each other is to provide not only for each other’s earthly welfare, but also for each other’s eternal welfare. Marriage can be a means of sanctification, and it is a great joy for a married couple, as they grow older, to be able to say that they have helped each other attain everlasting happiness. Toward the end of life, the wife might say to her husband, “I want to thank you for loving me and providing so well for me in all things.” And the husband could return the compliment and say, “I have to thank you for being such an understanding wife and for making our home so pleasant.” But the greatest joy of all will come in Heaven, when they can say to each other, “I have you to thank for helping me gain eternal life. I am grateful to you for keeping my soul safe for God.”

It’s interesting, to say the least and for me, that this is almost verbatim what my mother answered when I asked her what attracted her to Dad and what before Dad was she looking for in a husband. To get her to heaven. I thought she had achieved that with her oldest child. Obviously I was wrong.