October 6th, 2024 - 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time
How Should a Husband treat his Wife?
Here is where a celibate like me can get in a lot of trouble. So, I will let St. Paul’s words to the Ephesians begin the conversation. … (from: Ephesians 5:21-31)
Wives and Husbands be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. …
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her
to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water (baptism) and with the word, …
Therefore, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
For no man hates his own flesh, but rather, nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, …
“For this reason, a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.”
The relationship of Marriage is one of responsibility for the other. As an Army General stands as sentinel to protect the President, the President is not subordinate to the general but, is protected by the officer. The General needs the government and all it provides for the same reason every citizen does. Those needs once protected can nourish and enrich the general. This is a mutual relationship; as the one who provides is important, the protector of that person is important. They work together with the other, each in their role in harmony – not competition!
The love that brings a man to pledge himself to a woman is because he needs her and she will bring him benefits of family and belonging. The man protects and provides in his way to sustain and grow that benefit. Children raised in the faith express the faith out of the love they experience in the family – where the mother nourishes, provides example and the father teaches and protects them because he needs them as he needs his own body.
So, Husbands love your wives – because you need them as you not only live out the promise you made but, because Christ has given you a role to grow the Church in each child born of love.
May God Bless you!
Fr. Patrick Nelson, SDS
