October 21, the mystery of marriage.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother

and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is profound, and I am saying

that it refers to Christ and the Church, Ephesians 5, 31 to 32.

Here in Ephesians 5, 31, Paul is quoting Genesis 2, 24,

which Moses spoke, and Jesus said God spoke through Moses, Matthew 19, 5,

a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife,

and they shall become one flesh.

Paul says this word of God spoken before the fall into sin

is a reference to Christ and the Church, and contains, therefore, a great mystery.

What this implies is that when God engaged to create man and woman

and to ordain the union marriage, he didn't roll the dice

or draw straws or flip a coin as to how they might be related to each other.

He patterned marriage very purposefully after the relationship between his son

and the Church which he had planned from all eternity.

Therefore marriage is a mystery, it contains and conceals a meaning far greater

than what we see on the outside. God created man male and female and ordained marriage

so that the eternal covenant relationship between Christ and his Church

would be imaged fourth in the marriage union.

The inference Paul draws from this mystery is that the roles

of husband and wife in marriage are not arbitrarily assigned

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