Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches the sacred unity of marriage. The physical, sexual, psychological, economic, and loving bonds between a man and a woman have, ultimately, a sacred purpose: to act as a conduit of the divine life in the world. 

How does this work? In the unity of a man and a woman, which becomes in so many ways fruitful, we see an image of the Blessed Trinity: the Father and the Son love one another to such a perfect degree that their love gives birth to the Holy Spirit.

A married couple should see their relationship as an icon of the Holy Trinity—and more to it, a means by which the Trinitarian love bursts forth into the world. The two partners have a mission before God.

St. Paul saw that Christian marriage had a precisely Christian purpose: to symbolize the love of Christ and the Church. As a husband loves his wife (and as she loves him), so does Christ love the Church and the Church (at least ideally) loves him. What does Christ’s love for his Church look like? Well, it’s a deeply joyful reality, for it is the sharing of the divine life.