On the Power of the Mystery of Matrimony
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cling to his wife and they shall be one flesh. (Genesis 2: 24)
It is God’s will that the human race multiply. The means by which this is accomplished have been devised by God’s artistry. It is God’s mystery how man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife. To leave your parents does not mean to abandon your parents but rather to become parents yourselves. When children become parents, they are no longer only children, they are also companions of their parents. When wedded sons learn of the mystery and pain of childbirth, they then respect their parents even more. The marital union can never free a man from having respect for and obedience toward his parents. The original commandment of God to honor one’s parents must be fulfilled. But, according to the natural cycle of things, a man leaves his parents and becomes a parent himself; he becomes a founder of a new future while his parents depart, having completed their role in the world. However, the “leaving” of one’s parents does not consist in this alone. By a certain incomprehensible mystery, man clings to his wife and detaches himself from his parents. St. Theodoretus writes: “Christ Himself left his Father on high and united Himself to the Church.” My brethren, matrimony is a great and miraculous mystery, one of the greatest mysteries of God’s plan. A pure and honorable marriage overflows with sublimity. A pure and honorable marriage, in the fear of God, is a vessel of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Whoever disdains marriage disdains the Spirit of God. Whoever defiles marriage with impurity blasphemes against the Spirit of God. Whoever abstains from marriage for the sake of the Kingdom of God must, in a different manner, prepare himself as a vessel of the Holy Spirit and must make himself fruitful in the spiritual realm in order not to be cut down as the barren fig tree. O God, Holy Spirit Almighty, assist those who are married, that in purity, fear and mutual love they may be as the Church of God, in which Thou joyfully abidest and governest all things for good. To Thee be glory and praise forever. Amen. The Prologue of Ohrid by Saint Nikolai Velimirovic, May 28th.
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