ACC ~ Mark 10 v8
MUTUAL SERVANTS, EQUALLY SERVING
TERTULLIAN: Where are we to find language adequately to express the happiness of that marriage which the church cements, the oblation confirms, the benediction signs and seals, the angels celebrate, and the Father holds as approved? For all around the earth young people do not rightly and lawfully wed without their parentsâ consent. [1] What kind of yoke is that of two believers who share one hope, one desire, one discipline, one service? [2] They enjoy kinship in spirit and in flesh. They are mutual servants with no discrepancy of interests. Truly they are âtwo in one flesh.â [3] Where the flesh is one, the spirit is one as well. Together they pray, together bow down, together perform their fasts, mutually teaching, mutually entreating, mutually upholding. In the church of God they hold an equal place. [4] They stand equally at the banquet of God, equally in crises, equally facing persecutions, and equally in refreshments. Neither hides anything from the other. Neither neglects the other. Neither is troublesome to the other. [5] TO HIS WIFE 2.8. [6]
[1] The sacrificial offering of the Son in the Eucharist.
[2] Cf. Eph 4:4.
[3] Gen 2:24; Mt 19:5; Eph 5:31.
[4] Cf. Rom 12:15; 15:6; Gal 3:28; 1 Cor 12:12.
[5] Cf. Phil 1:27. The assumption of equality between women and men, their mutual self-disclosure and charity, is clearly expressed in this text.
[6] Cetedoc 0012, 2.8.37; ANF 4:48*.
THE ONE FLESH OF MAN AND WOMAN
ORIGEN: For the Word of God is to be considered as being more in one flesh with the soul than a man is one flesh with his wife. [1] But to whom is it more becoming to be also one spirit with God, than to this human soul which has so joined itself to God by love as that it may justly be said to be one spirit with God? [2] ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 2.6.3. [3]
[1] Cf. Gen 2:24.
[2] Cf. Deut 11:22; Rom 5:5; 1 Jn 2:5; 4:7-16.
[3] Cetedoc 0198E(A) 2.6.3; ANF 4:282*. Through faith the human soul joins itself to God by love so as to become one spirit in a unity even more profound than that of husband and wife. The joining of one man and one woman in one flesh is viewed in the light of the Incarnation.
THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE BRIDE
JACOB OF SARUG: In his mysterious plans the Father had destined a bride for his only Son and presented her to him under the guise of prophetic images. Moses appeared and with deft hand sketched a picture of bridegroom and bride but immediately drew a veil over it. In his book he wrote that a man should leave father and mother so as to be joined to his wife, that the two might in very truth become one. The prophet Moses spoke of man and woman in this way in order to foretell Christ and his church. With a prophetâs penetrating gaze he contemplated Christ becoming one with the church through the mystery of water. [1] He saw Christ even from the virginâs womb drawing the church to himself, and the church in the water of baptism drawing Christ to herself. Bridegroom and bride were thus wholly united in a mystical manner, which is why Moses wrote that the two should become one. ⌠Wives are not united to their husbands as closely as the church is to the Son of God. What husband but our Lord ever died for his wife, and what bride ever chose a crucified man as her husband? Who ever gave his blood as a gift to his wife except the one who died on the cross and sealed the marriage bond with his wounds? Who was ever seen lying dead at his own wedding banquet with his wife at his side seeking to console herself by embracing him? At what other celebration, at what other feast is the bridegroomâs body distributed to the guests in the form of bread? Death separates wives from their husbands, but in this case it is death that unites the bride to her beloved. HOMILIES. [2]
[1] Of baptism.
[2] JF B 122-23; MS 1:78, 80.
Mk