Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II

GENERAL AUDIENCE: 28 JULY, 1982
Marital love reflects God's love for his people

At the general audience in St. Peter s Square on Wednesday, 28 July, the Holy Father began a new phase of his catechesis on the theology of the body, drawing from St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians to begin a series of talks of matrimony.

1. Today we begin a new chapter on the subject of marriage, reading the words of St. Paul to the Ephesians: "Wives, be subject to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its savior. As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his body. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband" (Eph 5:22-33).
Simple and fundamental
2. We should now subject to deep analysis the quoted text contained in this fifth chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians, just as we have previously analyzed the individual words of Christ that seem to have a key significance for the theology of the body. The analysis dealt with the words with which Christ recalled "the beginning" (Mt 19:4; Mk l0:6), the human "heart", in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:28), and the future resurrection (cf. Mt 22:30, Mk 12:25; Lk 20:35). What is contained in the passage of the Letter to the Ephesians constitutes almost a "crowning" of those other concise key words. If there has emerged from them the theology of the body along its evangelical lines, simple and at the same time fundamental, it is in a certain sense necessary to presuppose that theology in interpreting the above-mentioned passage of the Letter to the Ephesians. Therefore if we want to interpret that passage, we must do so in he light of what Christ told us about the human body. He spoke not only reminding historical man, and therefore man himself, always "contemporary", about concupiscence (in his "heart"), but also revealing, on the one hand, the prospectives of the beginning" or original innocence or justice, and on the other hand the eschatological prospectives of the resurrection of the body, when " they will neither marry nor be given in marriage" (cf. Lk 20:35). All of this is a part of the theological viewpoint of the "redemption of our body" (Rom 5:23).
Meanings converge

Even the words of the author of the Letter to the Ephesians are centered on the body, and that is in both its metaphorical meaning, namely the body of Christ which is the Church, and its concrete meaning, namely the human body in its perennial masculinity and femininity, in its perennial destiny for union ;n marriage, as the Book of Genesis says: "The man will leave his father and his mother and will cling to his wife and the two will be one flesh" (Gen 2:24).

In what way do these two meanings of the body appear together and converge in the passage of the Letter to the Ephesians? And why do they appear together and converge there? These are the questions we must ask, expecting not so much immediate and direct answers, but possibly studied and long-term answers for which we have been prepared by our previous analyses. In fact, that passage from the Letter to the Ephesians cannot be correctly understood except in the full biblical context, considering it as the "crowning" of the themes and truths which, through the word of God revealed in Sacred Scripture, ebb and flow like long waves. They are central themes and essential truths. And therefore the quoted text from the "Letter to the Ephesians is also a key and "classic" text.

4. It is a text that is well known in the Liturgy, in which it always appears in relation to the sacrament of marriage. The Church's lex orandi sees in it an explicit reference to this sacrament: and the lex orandi presupposes and at the same time always expresses the lex credendi. Admitting this premise, we must immediately ask ourselves: In this "classic" text of the Letter to the Ephesians, how does the truth about the sacramentality of marriage emerge? In what way is it expressed and confirmed there? It will become clear that the answers to these questions cannot be immediate and direct, but gradual and long-term". This is proved even at first glance at this text, which brings us back to the Book of Genesis and therefore to "the beginning", and which, in the description of the relationship between Christ and the Church, takes from the writings of the Old Testament prophets the well-known analogy of the spousal love between God and is chosen people. Without examining these relationships it would be difficult to answer the question about how the sacramentality of marriage is dealt with in the Letter to the Ephesians. We will also see how the answer we are seeking must pass through the whole sphere of the questions previously analyzed, that is, through the theology of the body.
Body enters into definition of sacrament

The sacrament or the sacramentality - in the more general sense of this term - meets with the body and presupposes the "theology of the body". In fact, the sacrament, according to the generally known meaning, is a "visible sign". The "body" also signifies that which is visible, it signifies the "visibility" of the world and of man. Therefore, in some way, even if in the most general way, the body enters the definition of sacrament, being "a visible sign of an invisible reality", that is, of the spiritual, transcendent, divine reality. In this sign - and through this sign - God gives himself to man in his transcendent truth and in his love. The sacrament is a sign of grace, and it is an efficacious sign. Not only does the sacrament indicate grace and express it in a visible way, but it also produces it, and effectively contributes to having grace become part of man and to realizing and fulfilling in him the work of salvation. the work begun by God from all eternity and fully revealed in Jesus Christ.

6. I would say that already this first glance at the "classic" text of the Letter to the Ephesians points out the direction in which our further analyses must be developed. It is necessary that these analyses begin with the preliminary understanding of the text itself. However, they must subsequently lead us, so to say, beyond their limits, in order to understand possibly "to the very depths" how much richness of the truth revealed by God is contained in the scope of that wonderful page. Using the well-known expression from the Constitution Gaudium et Spes, we can say that the passage we have selected from the Letter to the Ephesians "reveals-in a particular woman to man, and makes him aware of his lofty vocation " (GS, 22): inasmuch as he shares in the experience of the incarnate person. In fact, God, creating him in his image, from the very beginning created him "male and female" (Gen 1 :27).

 During the subsequent analyses we will try - above all in the light of the quoted text from the Letter to the Ephesians - to understand more deeply the sacrament (particularly, marriage as a sacrament): first in the dimension of the Covenant and grace, and afterwards in the dimension of the sacramental sign.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 4 AUGUST, 1982
The call to be imitators of God and to walk in love

 During the general audience on Wednesday afternoon of 4 August, the Holy Father gave the following address.

1. During our talk last Wednesday I quoted the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians (vv. 22-23). Now, after an introductory glance at this classical text, one should examine the way in which this passage - so important both for the mystery of the Church and of the sacramental character of marriage - is situated in the immediate context of the whole letter.

While realizing that there are a number of problems discussed among biblical scholars as regards those to whom the letter was addressed, as regards the authorship and also the date of its composition, one must note that the Letter to the Ephesians has a very significant structure. The Author begins this letter by presenting the eternal plan of the salvation of man in Jesus Christ.

"God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . has chosen us in him that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.., as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things in him. . . " (Eph 1:3; 4-7; 10).

The author of the Letter to the Ephesians, after having presented in words full of gratitude the plan which, from eternity, is in God. and at a certain time is already fulfilled in the life of humanity, beseeches the Lord that men (and directly those to whom the letter is addressed) may fully know Christ as head: ". . . he has made him the head over all things for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all" (1:22-23).

Sinful humanity is called to a new life in Christ, in which the pagans and the Hebrews should join together as in a temple (cf. 2:11-21). The Apostle preaches the mystery of Christ among the pagans. to whom he especially addresses himself in his letter, bending "the knee before the Father" and asking him to grant them "according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man" (3:14, 16).
Vocation flowing from the divine plan

 2. After this profound and moving revelation of Christ in the Church, the author passes, in the second part of the letter, to more detailed instructions aimed at defining the Christian life as a vocation flowing from the divine plan, of which we have previously spoken, namely, from the mystery of Christ in the Church. Here also the author touches various questions which are always valid for the Christian life. He makes an exhortation for the preservation of unity, underlining at the same time, that this unity is constructed on the multiplicity and diversity of Christ's gifts. To each one is given a different gift, but all, as Christians, must "put on the new nature created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (4:24). To this is linked the categorical summons to overcome vices and to acquire the virtues corresponding to the vocation which all have obtained through Christ (cf. 4:25-32). The author writes: "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. . . in sacrifice" (5:1-2).
Condemns pagan abuses

 3. In the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians these directives become more detailed. The author severely condemns pagan abuses, writing: "For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light" (5:8). And then: "Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine (referring to the Book of Proverbs 23:31). . . but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with an your heart" (5:17-19). The author of the Letter wishes to illustrate in these words the climate of spiritual life which should animate every Christian community. At this point he then goes on to consider the domestic community, namely, the family. He writes: "Be filled with the Spirit. . . always and for everything giving thanks in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God the Father. Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ." (5:20-21). And thus w e enter precisely into that passage of the letter which will be the theme of our special analysis. We might easily observe that the essential content of this classical text appears at the meeting of the two principal guidelines of the entire Letter to the Ephesians: the first, that of the mystery of Christ which, as the expression of the divine plan for the salvation of man, is realized in the Church; the second, that of the Christian vocation as the model of life of the baptized individual, and of the single communities, corresponding to the mystery of Christ, or to the divine plan for the salvation of man.

 4. In the immediate context of the passage quoted, the author of the letter seeks to explain in what way the Christian vocation thus understood should be realized and manifested in the relations between all members of the family; therefore, not merely between the husband and wife (treated of precisely in the passage, chapter 5:22-23which we have chosen) but also between parents and children. The author writes: "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise) that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth. Father, do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord" (6:1-4). Following upon that, he speaks of the duty of servants in regard to their masters and, vice versa, of masters in regard to servants, that is, in regard to the slaves (cf. 6:5-9), and this is to be referred also to the directives concerning the family in the broad sense. The family, indeed, comprised not only the parents and children (according to the succession of generations), but included also in the wide sense, the servants or slaves of both sexes.
Moral obligations

 5. Thus, then, the text of the Letter to the Ephesians which we proposed as the object of a deeper analysis. is found in the immediate context of the teaching on the moral obligations of the family society (the so-called "Haustaflen" or domestic codes according to Luther's definition). We find similar instructions also in other letters (e.g. in the Letter to the Colossians, chapter 3, 18-24, and in the First Letter of Peter, 2:13; 37). Moreover, this immediate context forms part of our passage, inasmuch as the classical text which we have chosen treats of the reciprocal duties of husbands and wives. However, one must note that per se the passage 5:22-23of the Letter to the Ephesians deals exclusively with married couples and marriage, and what regards the family also in the broad sense is already found in the context. First, however, before undertaking a more detailed analysis of the text, it should be added that the whole letter ends with a stupendous encouragement to the spiritual battle (cf. 6:10-20). with brief recommendations (cf. 6:21-22) and with a final farewell (cf. 6:23, 24). That call to the spiritual battle seems to be based logically on the line of argument of the entire letter. It is, as it were, the explicit fulfillment of its principal guidelines.

 Having thus before our eyes the overall structure of the entire Letter to the Ephesians, we shall seek in the first analysis to clarify the meaning of the words: "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ," (5:21), addressed to husbands and to wives.

GENERAL AUDIENCE: 11 AUGUST, 1982
Reverence for Christ the basis of relationship between spouses

 During the general audience of 11 August the Holy Father gave the following address.

 1. Today we begin a more detailed analysis of the passage of the Letter to the Ephesians 5:21-23. The author, addressing husbands and wives, recommends them to be "subject to one another out of reverence for Christ" (5:21).

 Here it ;s a question of a relationship of a double dimension or degree: reciprocal and communitarian. One clarifies and characterizes the other. The mutual relations of husband and wife should flow from their common relationship with Christ. The author of the letter speaks of the "reverence for Christ" in a sense analogous to that when he speaks of the " fear of God " . In this case it is not a question of fear which is a defensive attitude before the threat of evil, but it is above all a case of respect for holiness, for the sacrum. It is a question of pietas, which, in the language of the Old Testament, was expressed by the term "fear of God" (cf. e.g., Ps 103:11; Pr 1:7; 23:17; Sir 1:11-16). In fact, this pietas, arising from a profound awareness of the mystery of Christ, should constitute the basis of the reciprocal relations between husbands and wives.
Moral instruction

 2. The text chosen by us, as likewise the immediate context, has a "parenetic" character, that is, of moral instruction. The author of the letter wishes to indicate to husbands and wives the basis of their mutual relationship and their entire conduct. He deduces the relative indications and directives from the mystery of Christ presented at the beginning of the letter. This mystery should be spiritually present in the mutual relationship of spouses. The mystery of Christ, penetrating their hearts, engendering in them that holy " reverence for Christ " (namely, pietas), should lead them to "be subject to one another": the mystery of Christ, that is, the mystery of the choice from eternity of each of them in Christ "to be the adoptive sons" of God.
Husband not the "Lord"

 3. The opening expression of our passage of Ephesians 5:21-23, which we have approached by an analysis of the remote and immediate context, has quite a special eloquence. The author speaks of the mutual subjection of the spouses, husband and wife, and in this way he explains the words which he will write afterwards on the subjection of the wife to the husband. In fact we read: "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord" (5:22). In saying this, the author does not intend to say that the husband is the "Lord" of the wife and that the interpersonal pact proper to marriage is a pact of domination of the husband over the wife. Instead, he expresses a different concept: that is, that the wife can and should find in her relationship with Christ- who is the one Lord of both the spouses- the motivation of that relationship with her husband which flows from the very essence of marriage and of the family. Such a relationship, however, is not one of one-sided domination. Marriage, according to the Letter to the Ephesians, excludes that element of the pact which was a burden and, at times, does not cease to be a burden on this institution. The husband and the wife are in fact "subject to one another", and are mutually subordinated to one another. The source of this mutual subjection is to be found in Christian pietas, and its expression is love.
No one-sided domination

 4. The author of the letter underlines this love in a special way, in addressing himself to husbands. He writes: "You husbands love your wives. . . ", and by expressing himself in this way, he removes any fear t hat might have arisen (given the modern sensitivity) from the previous phrase. "Wives, be subject to your husbands". Love excludes every kind of subjection whereby the wife might become a servant or a slave of the husband, an object of unilateral domination. Love makes the husband simultaneously subject to the wife, and thereby subject to the Lord himself, just as the wife to the husband. The community or unity which they should establish through marriage, is constituted by a reciprocal donation of self, which is also a mutual subjection. Christ is the source and at the same time the model of that subjection, which, being reciprocal "out of reverence for Christ", confers on the conjugal union a profound and mature character. In this source and before this model many elements of a psychological or moral nature are so transformed as to give rise, I would say, to a new and precious "fusion" of the bilateral relations and conduct.

 5. The author of the Letter to the Ephesians does not fear to accept those concepts which were characteristic of the mentality and of the customs of the times. He does not fear to speak of the subjection of the wife to the husband; he does not fear (also in the last verse of the text quoted by us) to recommend to the wife, that "she respects her husband" (5:33). It is certain, in fact, that when the husband and wife are subject to one another "out of reverence for Christ", there will be established a just balance, such as to correspond to their Christian vocation in the mystery of Christ.
"Out of reverence"

 6. Nowadays our contemporary sensitivity is certainly different; quite different, too, are the mentality and customs, and also the social position of women in regard to men. Nevertheless, the fundamental moral principle which we find in the Letter to the Ephesians remains the same and produces the same results. The mutual subjection "out of reverence for Christ"-a subjection arising from the basis of Christian pietas -produces always that profound and solid structure of the community of the spouses in which there is constituted the true "communion" of the person.
A great analogy

 7. The author of the text to the Ephesians, who began his letter with a magnificent vision of God's eternal plan in regard to humanity, does not limit himself to emphasizing merely the traditional aspects of morality or the ethical aspects of marriage, but he goes beyond the scope of teaching, and writing on the reciprocal relationship of the spouses, he discovers therein the dimension of the very mystery of Christ of which he is the herald and the apostle. "Wives, be subject to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. . . " (5:22-25). In this way, the teaching of this "parenetic" part of the letter is inserted, in a certain sense, into the very reality of the mystery hidden from eternity in God and revealed to mankind in Jesus Christ. In the Letter to the Ephesians we are, I would say, witnesses of a particular meeting of that mystery with the very essence of the vocation to marriage. How are we to understand this meeting? In the text of the Letter to the Ephesians it is presented above all as a great analogy. There we read: "Wives, be subject to your husbands as to the Lord. . . ": here we have the first component of the analogy. "For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church. . . ": and here we have the second component which clarifies and motivates the first. "As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject to their husbands. . . ": the relationship of Christ to the Church, presented previously, is now expressed as a relationship of the Church to Christ, and here there is contained the successive component of the analogy. Finally: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her. . . ": and this is the ultimate component of the analogy. The remainder of the text of the letter develops the fundamental thought contained in the passage just now quoted; and the entire text of the Letter to the Ephesians in chapter 5 (vv 21-23) is completely permeated with the same analogy. That is to say, the mutual relationship between the spouses, husband and wife, is to be understood by Christians in the light of the relationship between Christ and the Church.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 18 AUGUST, 1982
Deeper understanding of the Church and marriage

 During the general audience of Wednesday, l8 August, Pope John Paul delivered the following address to the large crowd present in St. Peter's Square.

 1. Analyzing the respective components of the Letter to the Ephesians we established last Wednesday that the reciprocal relationship between husband and wife is to be understood by Christians as an image of the relationship between Christ and the Church.

 This relationship is a revelation and a realization in time of the mystery of salvation, of the election of love, hidden from eternity in God. In this revelation and realization the mystery of salvation includes the particular aspect of conjugal love in the relationship of Christ to the Church, and thus one can express it most adequately by applying the analogy of the relationship which exists - which should exist - between husband and wife in marriage. Such an analogy clarifies the mystery, at least to a certain degree. Indeed, it seems, according to the author of the Letter to the Ephesians, that this analogy serves as a complement to that of the "Mystical Body" (cf. Eph 1:22-23) when we attempt to express the mystery of the relationship of Christ to the Church - and going back even further, the mystery of the eternal love of God for man and for humanity, that mystery which is expressed and is realized in time through the relationship of Christ to the Church.
Understanding reciprocal love

 2. If - as has been said - this analogy illuminates the mystery, it in its turn is illuminated by that mystery. The conjugal relationship which unites husband and wife should help us- according to the author of the Letter to the Ephesians - to understand the love which unites Christ to the Church, that reciprocal love between Christ and the Church in which is realized the divine eternal plan for the salvation of man. Yet the content of meaning of the analogy does not end here. The analogy used in the Letter to the Ephesians illuminating the mystery of the relationship between Christ and the Church, contemporaneously unveils the essential truth about marriage: that is, that marriage corresponds to the vocation of Christians only when it reflects the love which Christ the Bridegroom gives to the Church his Bride, and which the Church (resembling the "subject" wife, that is, completely given) attempts to return to Christ. This is redeeming love, love as salvation, the love with which man from eternity has been loved by God in Christ: "even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. . . " (Eph 1:4).
Analogy follows two directions

  Marriage corresponds to the vocation of Christians as spouses only if, precisely, that love is reflected and effected therein. This will become clear if we attempt to re-read the Pauline analogy inversely, that is, beginning with the relationship of Christ to the Church and turning next to the relationship of husband and wife in marriage. In the text. an exhortative tone is used: "As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands". And, on the other hand: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church. . . ". These expressions make it clear that what is involved is a moral obligation. Yet, in order to recommend such an obligation one must admit that in the very essence of marriage a particle of the same mystery is captured. Otherwise, the entire analogy would hang suspended in a void. The call of the author of the Letter to the Ephesians, directed to spouses, that they model their reciprocal relationship on the relationship of Christ to the Church ("as-so"), would be without a real basis, as if it had no ground beneath its feet. Such is the logic of the analogy used in the cited text to the Ephesians.

 4. As we can see, the analogy operates in two directions. If, on the one hand, it helps us better to understand the essence of the relationship between Christ and the Church, on the other, at the same time, it helps us to see more deeply into the essence of marriage to which Christians are called. The analogy shows, in a certain sense, the way in which this marriage, in its deepest essence, emerges from the mystery of God's eternal love for man and for humanity: from that salvific mystery which is fulfilled in time through the spousal love of Christ for the Church.

 Beginning with the words of the Letter to the Ephesians (5:22-33), we can move on to develop the thought contained in the great Pauline analogy in two directions: either in the direction of a deeper understanding of the Church, or in the direction of a deeper understanding of marriage. In our considerations, we will pursue first of all the latter, mindful that. at the basis of an understanding of marriage in its very essence is the spousal relationship of Christ to the Church. That relationship will be analyzed even more precisely in order to establish - presupposing the analogy with marriage - in what way the latter becomes a visible sign of the divine eternal mystery, as an image of the Church united with Christ. In this way the Letter to the Ephesians leads us to the very foundations of the sacramentality of marriage.
Mentality of the time

 5. Let us undertake, then, a detailed analysis of the text. When we read in the Letter to the Ephesians that "the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its Savior" (Eph 5 :23), we can presume that the author, who has already explained that the submission of the wife to the husband as head is intended as reciprocal submission "out of reverence for Christ", goes back to the concept rooted in the mentality of the time. to express first of all the truth concerning the relationship of Christ to the Church, that is, that Christ is the head of the Church. He is head as "Savior of his body". The Church is exactly that body which - being submissive in everything to Christ as its head - receives from him all that through which it becomes and is his body: that is, the fullness of salvation as the gift of Christ, who "gave himself up for her" to the last. Christ's "giving himself up" to the Father by obedience unto death on the Cross acquired here a strictly ecclesiological sense: "Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her" (Eph 5:25). Through a total giving up of himself because of his love he formed the Church as his body and continually builds her up, becoming her head. As head he is the Savior of his body, and at the same time as Savior he is head. As head and savior of the Church, he is also Bridegroom of his Bride.
Fruit of Christ's love

 6. Inasmuch as the Church is herself, so, as body, she receives from Christ, her head, the entire gift of salvation as fruit of Christ's love and of his giving himself up for the Church: fruit of his giving himself up to the last. That gift of himself to the Father by obedience unto death (cf. Phil 2:8) is contemporaneously, according to the Letter to the Ephesians, a "giving himself up for the Church". In this expression. redeeming love is transformed, I would say into spousal love: Christ, giving himself up for the Church, through the same redeeming act, is united once and for all with her, as bridegroom with the bride, as husband with his wife, giving himself through all that which is once and for all contained in his "giving himself up" for the Church. In this way, the mystery of the redemption of the body conceals within itself, in a certain sense, the mystery "of the marriage of the Lamb (cf. Rev. 19:7). Because Christ is the head of the body, the entire salvific gift of the Redemption penetrates the Church as the body of that head, and continually forms the most profound, essential substance of her life. It is the spousal form, given that in the cited text the analogy of body - head becomes an analogy of groom - bride, or rather of husband-wife. This is demonstrated by the subsequent passages of the text, which will be considered next.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 25 AUGUST, 1982
St. Paul's analogy of union of head and body does not destroy individuality of the person

 During the general audience in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday evening, 25 August, the Holy Father continued his catechesis on the Letter to the Ephesians.

 1. In the preceding reflections on the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians (5:21-23), we drew attention particularly to the analogy of the relationship which exists between Christ and the Church, and of that which exists between husband and wife united by the bond of marriage. Before undertaking the analysis of the further passages of the text in question, we must take note of the fact that within the range of the fundamental Pauline analogy: Christ and the Church, on one hand, and man and woman as spouses on the other, there is a supplementary analogy: the analogy of the head and of the body. And it is precisely this analogy that confers a chiefly ecclesiological significance on the statement analyzed by us: the Church as such is formed by Christ; it is constituted by him in its essential part, as the body is by the head. The union of the body with the head is above all of an organic nature, it is, to put it simply, the somatic union of the human organism. On this organic union there is founded directly the biological union, inasmuch as it can be said that the body lives by the head (even if at the same time, though in a different way, the head lives by the body). And besides, in the case of man, there is founded on this organic union also the psychic union, understood in its integrity, and, in fine, the integral unity of the human person.
Eschatological perspective

 2. As already stated (at least in the passage analyzed), the author of the Letter to the Ephesians has introduced the supplementary analogy of the head and the body within the limits of the analogy of marriage. He even seems to have conceived the first analogy: "head-body", in a more central manner from the point of view of the truth about Christ and the Church proclaimed by him. However, one must equally affirm that he has not placed it alongside or outside of the analogy of marriage as a conjugal bond. Quite the contrary. In the whole text of the Letter to the Ephesians (5:22-33) and especially in the first part with which we are dealing (5:22-23), the author speaks as if in marriage also the husband is "head of the wife" and the wife "the body of the husband'', as if the married couple formed one organic union. This can find its basis in the text of Genesis which speaks of one flesh (Gen 2:24), are in that same text to which he author of the Letter to the Ephesians will shortly refer in the context of his great analogy. Nevertheless, in the text of the Book of Genesis it is made clear that the man and the woman are two distinct personal subjects who knowingly decide their conjugal union, defined by that archaic text with the words "one flesh". This is equally clear also in the Letter to the Ephesians. The author makes use of a twofold analogy: head-body, husband-wife, for the purpose of illustrating clearly the nature of the union between Christ and the Church. In a certain sense, especially in the first part of the text to the Ephesians 5:22-23, the ecclesiological dimension seems decisive and dominant.
Particular relationship

 3. "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church, and gave himself up for her. . . '' (Eph 5:22-25). This supplementary analogy "head-body" indicates that within the limits of the entire passage of the Letter to the Ephesians 5:22-23, we are dealing with two distinct subjects which, in virtue of a particular reciprocal relationship, become in a certain sense, a single subject. The head, together with the body, constitutes a subject (in the physical and metaphysical sense), an organism, a human person, a being. There is no doubt that Christ is a subject different from the Church, however, in virtue of a particular relationship, he is united with her, as in an organic union of head and body: the Church is so strongly so essentially herself in virtue of a union with Christ (mystical). Is it possible to say the same thing of the spouses, of the man and the woman united by the marriage bond? If the author of the Letter to the Ephesians sees also in marriage the analogy of the union of head and body, this analogy in a certain sense seems to apply to marriage in consideration of the union which Christ constitutes with the Church and the Church with Christ. Therefore, the analogy regards above all marriage itself as that union through which "the two become one flesh" (Eph 5:31; cf. Gen 2:24).
Bi-subjectivity

 4. This analogy however does not blur the individuality of the subjects: that of the husband and that of the wife, that is, the essential bi-subjectivity which is at the basis of the image of "one single body". Rather, the essential bi-subjectivity of the husband and wife in marriage which makes of them in a certain sense " one single body " passes, within the limits of the whole text we arc examining (Eph 5:22-33) to the image of Church-Body united with Christ as head. This is seen especially in the continuation of this text where the author describes the relationship of Christ to the Church precisely by means of the image of the relationship of the husband to the wife. In this description the Church-Body of Christ appears clearly as the second subject of the spousal union to which the first subject, Christ, manifests the love with which he has loved her by giving himself for her. That love is an image and above all a model of the love which the husband should show to his wife in marriage, when the two are subject to each other "Out of reverence for Christ."
Two become one flesh

 5. In fact we read: Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify fuel, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his body. For this reason a man should leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh"' (Eph 5:25-31).
Aim is sanctification

 6. It is easy to perceive hat in his part of the text of the Letter to the Ephesians 5:22-23, bi-subjectivity clearly dominates. It is manifested both in the relationship Christ-Church, and also in the relationship husband-wife. This does not mean to say that the image of a single subject disappears: the image of "a single body". It is preserved also in the passage of our text, and in a certain sense it is better explained there. This will be seen more clearly when we submit it to a detailed analysis the above-quoted passage. Thus the author of the Letter to the Ephesians speaks of the love of Christ for the Church by explaining the way in which that love is expressed, and by presenting at the same time both that love and its expressions as a model which the husband should follow in accord to his wife. The love of Christ for the Church has essentially, as its scope, her sanctification: "Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her" (Eph 5:25-26). As a principle of this sanctification there is baptism, the first and essential fruit of Christ's giving himself for the Church. In this text baptism is not called by its own proper name, but is defined as purification "by the washing of water with the word" (Eph 5:26). This washing, with the power that derives from the redemptive giving of himself by Christ for the Church, brings about the fundamental purification through which Christ's love for the Church acquires, in the eyes of the author of the letter, a spousal character.

 7. It is known that the sacrament of baptism is received by an individual subject in the Church. The author of the letter, however, beyond the individual subject of baptism sees the whole Church. The spousal love of Christ is applied to her, the Church, every time that a single person receives in her the fundamental purification by means of baptism. He who receives baptism becomes- by virtue of the redemptive love of Christ- at the same time a participant in his spousal love for the Church. In our text "the washing of water with the word" is an expression of the spousal love, in the sense that it prepares the Bride (Church) for the Bridegroom, it makes the Church the spouse of Christ, I would say, "in actu primo". Some Biblical scholars observe that in this text quoted by us, the washing with water recalls the ritual ablution which preceded the wedding-something which constituted an important religious rite also among the Greeks.
Ecclesiological dimension

 8. As the sacrament of baptism the washing with water with the word" (Eph 5:26) renders the Church a spouse not only "in actu primo" but also in the more distant perspective, in the eschatological perspective. This opens up before us when, in the Letter of Ephesians we read that "the washing with water" serves, on the part of the groom "to present the Church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:27). The expression "to present to himself" seems to indicate that moment of the wedding in which the bride is led to the groom, already clothed in the bridal dress and adorned for the wedding. The text quoted indicates that the Christ-spouse himself takes care to adorn the spouse-Church, he is concerned that she should be beautiful with the beauty of grace, beautiful by virtue of the gift of salvation in its fullness, already granted from the moment of the sacrament of baptism. But baptism is only the beginning from which the figure of the glorious Church (as we read in the text) will emerge, as a definitive fruit of the redemptive and spousal love, only with the final coming of Christ (parousia).

 We see how profoundly the author of the Letter to the Ephesians examines the sacramental reality, proclaiming its grand analogy: both the union of Christ with the Church, and the conjugal union of man and woman in marriage are in this way illuminated by a particular supernatural light.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 1 SEPTEMBER, 1982
Sacredness of human body and marriage
The general audience of 1 September was held as usual in St. Peter's Square. despite the inclement weather. The following is the text of the Holy Father's address.

 1. The author of the Letter to the Ephesians, proclaiming the analogy between the spousal bond which unites Christ and the Church. and that which unites the husband and wife in marriage, writes as follows: "Husbands, love your wives. as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word. that he might present the Church to himself in splendor, without Spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:25-27).

 2. It is significant that the image of the Church in splendor" is presented, in the text quoted, as a bride all beautiful in her body. Certainly this is a metaphor; but it is very eloquent, and it shows how deeply important is the body in the analogy of spousal love. The Church " in splendor" is that "without spot or wrinkle". "Spot" can be understood as a sign of ugliness, ';wrinkle " as a sign of old age or senility. In the metaphorical sense, both terms indicate moral defects, sin. It may be added that in St. Paul the "old man" signifies sinful man (cf. Rom 6:6). Christ therefore with his redemptive and spousal love ensures that the Church not only becomes sinless, but remains "eternally young".

 3. The scope of the metaphor is, as may be seen, quite vast. The expressions which refer directly and immediately to the human body characterizing it in the reciprocal relationships between husband and wife, indicate at the same time attributes and qualities of the moral, spiritual and supernatural order. This is essential for such analogy. Therefore the author of the letter can define the state of the Church " in splendor" in relation to the state of the body of the bride, free from signs of ugliness or old age (" or any such thing"). simply as holiness and absence of sin: such is the Church "holy and without blemish". It is obvious then what kind of beauty of the bride is in question, in what sense the Church is the body of Christ, and in what sense that Body-Bride welcomes the gift of the Bridegroom who "has loved the Church and has given himself for her". Nevertheless it is significant that St. Paul explains all this reality, which is essentially spiritual and supernatural, by means of the resemblance of the body and of the love whereby husband and wife become "one flesh".

 4. In the entire passage of the text cited, the principle of bi-subjectivity is clearly preserved: Christ-Church, Bridegroom-Bride (husband-wife). The author presents the love of Christ for the Church - that love which makes the Church the body of Christ of which he is the head- as the model of the love of the spouses and as the model of the marriage of the bridegroom and the bride. Love obliges the bridegroom-husband to be solicitous for the welfare of the bride-wife, it commits him to desire her beauty and at the same time to appreciate this beauty and to care for it. Here it is a case of visible beauty, of physical beauty. The bridegroom examines his bride with attention as though in the creative, loving anxiety to find everything that is good and beautiful in her and which he desires for her. That good which he who loves creates, through his love, in the one that is loved, is like a test of that same love and its measure. Giving himself in the most disinterested way, he who loves does so only within the limits of this measure and of this control.

 5. When the author of the Letter to the Ephesians - in the succeeding verses of the text (chapter 5:28-29) - turns his mind exclusively to the spouses themselves, the analogy of the relationship of Christ to the Church is still more profound and impels him to express himself thus: "Husbands should love their wives as their own bodies" (Eph 5:28). Here there returns again the motive of "one flesh", which in the above-mentioned phrase and in the subsequent phrases is not only taken up again, but also clarified. If husbands should love their wives as their own bodies, this means that that uni-subjectivity is based on bi-subjectivity and has not a real character but only intentional: the wife's body is not the husband's own body, but it must be loved like his own body. It is therefore a question of unity, not in the ontological sense, but in the moral sense: unity through love.

 6. "He who loves his wife loves himself " (Eph 5:28). This phrase confirms still more that character of unity. In a certain sense, Love makes the " I " of the other person his own "I". The "I" of the wife, I would say, becomes through love the "I" of the husband. The body is the expression of that " I " and the foundation of its identity. The union of husband and wife in love is expressed also by means of the body. It is expressed in the reciprocal relationship, even though the author of the letter indicates it especially from the part of the husband. This results from the structure of the total image. Even though the spouses should be " subject to one another out of reverence for Christ" (this was already made evident in the first verse of the text quoted: Eph 5:22-23), however later on, the husband is above all, he who loves and the wife, on the other hand, is she who is loved. One could even hazard the idea that the wife's "submission" to her husband, understood in the context of the entire passage (5:22-23) of the Letter to the Ephesians, signifies above all the "experiencing of love' All the more so since this "submission" is related to the image of the submission of the Church to Christ, which certainly consists in experiencing his love. The Church, as bride, being the object of the redemptive love of Christ-bridegroom, becomes his body. The wife being the object of the spousal love of the husband, becomes "one flesh", with him in a certain sense, his "own" flesh. The author will repeat this idea once again in the last phrase of the passage analyzed here: "However, let each one of you love his wife as himself" (Eph 5:33).

 7. This is a moral unity, conditioned and constituted by love. Love not only unites the two subjects, but allows them to be mutually interpenetrated, spiritually belonging to one another to such a degree. that the author of the letter can affirm: "He who loves his wife loves himself" (Eph 5:28). The "I" becomes in a certain sense tile " you " and the "you" the "1" (in a moral sense, that is). And therefore the continuation of the text analyzed by us reads as follows: For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his body" (Eph 5:29-30). The phrase, which initially still refers to the relationships of the married couple, returns successively in an explicit manner to the relationship Christ-Church, and so in the light of that relationship, it leads us to define the sense of the entire phrase. The author, after explaining the character of the relationship of the husband to his own wife by forming "one flesh", wishes to reinforce still more his previous statement ("he who loves his wife loves himself"), and in a certain sense, to maintain it by the negation and exclusion of tile opposite possibility ("no man ever hates his own flesh" Eph 5:29). In the union through love the body of the "other" becomes "one's own" in the sense that one cares for the welfare of the other's body as he does for his own. The above-mentioned words, characterizing the "carnal " love which should unite the spouses, express, it may be said, the most general and at the same time. the most essential content. They seem to speak of this love above all in the language of "agape".

 8. The expression according to which man "nourishes and cherishes his own flesh"- that is, that the husband "nourishes and cherishes" the flesh of his wife as his own - seems rather to indicate the solicitude of the parents, the protective relationship, instead of the conjugal tenderness. The motivation of this character should be sought in the fact that the author here passes distinctly from the relationship which unites the spouses to the relationship between Christ and the Church. The expressions which refer to the care of the body, and in the first place to its nourishment, to its sustenance suggest to many Scripture scholars a reference to the Eucharist with which Christ in his spousal love nourishes the Church. If these expressions, even though in a minor key, indicate the specific character of conjugal love, especially of that love whereby the spouses become "one flesh", they help us at the same time to understand, at least the body and the moral imperative to care for its good: for that good which corresponds to its dignity. The comparison with the Church as the Body of Christ, the Body of his redemptive and the same time spousal love, should leave in the minds of those to whom the Letter to the Ephesians was destined (5:22-23) a profound sense of the "sacredness" of the human body in general, and especially in marriage, as the "situation" in which this sense of the sacred determines in a particularly profound way, the reciprocal relationships of the persons and above all, those of the man with the woman, inasmuch as she is wife and mother of their children.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 8 SEPTEMBER, 1982
Christ's redemptive love has spousal nature

 
 During the general audience of 8 September the Holy Father continued his exposition of the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians.

 1. The author of the Letter to tile Ephesians writes: "No man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his body" (Eph 5:29-30). After this verse the author deems it opportune to cite that which in the entire Bible can be considered the fundamental text on marriage, the text contained in Genesis 2:24: "for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one" (Eph 5:31; Gen 2:24). It is possible to deduce from the immediate context of the Letter to the Ephesians that the citation from the Book of Genesis (Gen 2:24) is necessary here not so much to recall the unity of the spouses, determined from the beginning in the work of creation, but to present the mystery of Christ with the Church from which the author deduces the truth about the unity of the spouses. This is the most important point of the whole text, in a certain sense the keystone. The author of the Letter to the Ephesians sums up in these words all that he has said previously, tracing the analogy and presenting the similarity between the unity of the spouses and the unity of Christ with the Church. Citing the words of the Book of Genesis (2:24), the author points out that the bases of this analogy are to be sought in the line which, in God's salvific plan, unites marriage, as the most ancient revelation ("manifestation") of that plan in the created world, with the definitive revelation and "manifestation", the revelation that "Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her" (Eph 5:25), conferring on his redemptive love a spousal character and meaning.
Mystery of Christ and the Church

 2. So then this analogy which permeates the text of the Letter to the Ephesians (5:22-33) has its ultimate basis in God's salvific plan. This will become still more clear and evident when we place the passage of this text analyzed by us in the overall context of the Letter to the Ephesians. Then one will more easily understand why the author after citing the words of the Book of Genesis (2:24), writes: "This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church" (Eph 5:32)

 In the overall context of the Letter to the Ephesians and likewise in the wider context of the words of Holy Scripture, which reveal God's salvific plan "from the beginning'', one must admit that here the term "mysterion" signifies the mystery first of all hidden in God's mind. and later revealed in the history of man. Indeed, it is a question of a "great" mystery, given its importance: that mystery, as God's salvific plan in regard to humanity, is in a certain sense the central theme of the whole of revelation, its central reality. It is this that God, as Creator and Father, wishes above all to transmit to mankind in his Word.
Work of salvation

 3. It is a question not only of transmitting the " Good News" of salvation, but of initiating at the same time the work of salvation, as a fruit of grace which sanctifies man for eternal life in union with God. Precisely along the line of this revelation-accomplishment, St. Paul sets in relief the continuity between the most ancient covenant which God established by constituting marriage in the very work of creation, and the definitive covenant in which Christ, after having loved the Church and given himself up for her, is united to her in a spousal" way, corresponding to the image of spouses. This continuity of God's salvific initiative constitutes the essential basis of the great analogy contained in the Letter to the Ephesians. The continuity of God's salvific initiative signifies the continuity and even the identity of the mystery, of " the great mystery ', in the different phases of its revelation - therefore in a certain sense, of its "manifestation" - and at the same time of its accomplishment: in its "most ancient" phase from the point of view of the history of man and salvation, and in the phase "of the fullness of time" (Gal 4:41).
Understanding "great mystery"

 4. Is it possible to understand that "great mystery" as "a sacrament"? Is the author of the Letter to the Ephesians speaking perchance, in the text quoted by us, of the sacrament of marriage? If he is not speaking of it directly, in the strict sense - here one must be in agreement with the sufficiently widespread opinion of Biblical scholars and theologians - however it seems that in this text he is speaking of the bases of the sacramentality of the whole of Christian life and in particular of the bases of the sacramentality of marriage. He speaks then of the sacramentality of the whole of Christian existence in the Church and in particular of marriage in an indirect way, but in the most fundamental way possible.
Sacrament and mystery

 5. Is not "sacrament" synonymous with "mystery"? The mystery indeed remains "occult"- hidden in God himself - in such wise that even after its proclamation (or its revelation) it does not cease to be called "mystery", and it is also preached as a mystery. The sacrament presupposes the revelation of the mystery and presupposes also its acceptance by means of faith on the part of man. At the same time, however, it is something more than tile proclamation of the mystery and its acceptance by faith. The sacrament consists in the " manifesting" of that mystery in a sign which serves not only to proclaim the mystery, but also to accomplish it in man. The sacrament is a visible and efficacious sign of grace. Through it, there is accomplished in man that mystery hidden from c eternity in God, of which the Letter to the Ephesians speaks at the very beginning (cf. Eph 1:9) - the mystery of God's call of man in Christ to holiness, and the mystery of his predestination to become his adopted son. This becomes a reality in a mysterious way. under the veil of a sign; nonetheless that sign is always a "making visible" of the supernatural mystery which it works in man under its veil.
Mystery hidden in God

 6. Taking into consideration the passage of the Letter to the Ephesians analyzed here, and in particular the words: "this is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christians the Church". one must note that the author of the Letter writes not only of the great mystery hidden in God, but also - and above all - of the mystery which is accomplished by the fact that Christ, who with an act of redemptive love, loved the Church and gave himself up for her, s by the same act united with the Church in a spousal manner, as the husband and wife are reciprocally united in marriage instituted by the Creator. It seems that the words of the Letter to the Ephesians provide sufficient motivation for what, is stated at the very beginning of the Constitution Lumen Gentium: The Church is in Christ in the. nature of a sacrament- a sign and instrument, that is, of communion with God and of unity among all men" (Lumen Gentium, n. 1). This text of Vatican II does not say: the Church is a sacrament", but it is in the nature of a sacrament", thereby indicating that one must: speak of the sacramentality of the Church in a manner which is analogical and not identical in regard to what we mean when we speak of the seven sacraments administered by the Church by Christ's institution. If there are bases for speaking of the Church as in the nature of f a. sacrament, such bases for the greater part have been indicated precisely in the Letter to the Ephesians.
Mission to sanctify

 7. It may be said that this sacramentality of the Church is constituted by all the sacraments by means of which she carries out her mission of sanctification. It can also be said that the sacramentality of he Church is the source of the sacraments and in particular of Baptism and the Eucharist, as can be seen from the passage, already analyzed, of the Letter to the Ephesians (cf. Eph 5:25-30). Finally it must be said that the sacramentality of the Church remains in a particular relationship with marriage: the most ancient sacrament.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 15 SEPTEMBER, 1982
Moral aspects of the Christian's vocation

 The general audience of 15 September took place in St. Peter's Square in the presence of a large crowd of people. Pope John Paul continued his discourse on the text of Paul's Letter to the Ephesians, and spoke as follows:

 1. We have before us the text of the Letter to the Ephesians 5:22-23, which we have already been analyzing for some time because of its importance in regards to marriage and the sacrament. In the whole of its content, beginning from the first chapter, the letter treats above all of the mystery "for ages" "hidden in God" as gift eternally destined for mankind. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" (Eph 1:3-6).

 2. Until now the letter speaks of the mystery hidden "for ages" (Eph 3:9) in God. The subsequent phrases introduce the reader to the phase of fulfillment of this mystery in the history of man: the gift, destined for him "for ages" in Christ, becomes a real part of man in the same Christ: ". . . in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us. For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth." (Eph 1:7-10).

 3. And so the eternal mystery passed from the mystery of "being hidden in God" to the phase of revelation and actualization. Christ, in whom humanity was "for ages" chosen and blessed "with every spiritual blessing of the Father"- Christ, destined according to the eternal "plan" of God, so that in him, as in a head "all things might be united things in heaven and things on earth" in the eschatological perspective- reveals the eternal mystery and accomplishes it among men. Therefore the author of the Letter to the Ephesians, in the remainder of the same letter, exhorts those who have received this revelation, and those who have accepted it in faith, to model their lives in the spirit of the truth they have learned. And to the same end he exhorts in a particular way Christian couples, husbands and wives.

 4. For the greater part of the context the letter becomes instruction, or parenesis. The author seems to speak, above all, of the moral aspects of the vocation of Christian, while however making continuous reference to the mystery, which is already at work in them, by virtue of the redemption of Christ - and efficaciously works in them especially by virtue of baptism. He writes in fact: "In him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit" (Eph 1:13). Thus then the moral aspects of the Christian vocation remain linked not only with the revelation of the eternal divine mystery in Christ and with its acceptance through faith, but also with the sacramental order, which although not placed in the forefront in the whole letter, seems however to be present in a discreet manner. Anyway, it could not be otherwise seeing that the Apostle is writing to Christians who, through baptism, had become members of the ecclesial community. From this point of view, the passage of the Letter to the Ephesians, chapter 5:22-23, analyzed up to the present, seems to have a special importance. Indeed, it throws a special light on the essential relationship of the mystery with the sacrament and especially on the sacramentality of matrimony.

 5. At the heart of the mystery there is Christ. In him - precisely in him - humanity has been eternally blessed "with every spiritual blessing". In him - in Christ, humanity has been chosen "before the creation of the world", chosen "in love" and predestined to the adoption of sons. When later, in the "fullness of time" this eternal mystery is accomplished in time, this is brought about also in him and through him, in Christ and through Christ. Through Christ there is revealed the mystery of divine love. Through him and in him it is accomplished: in him "we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. . . " (Eph 1:7). In this manner men who through faith accept the gift offered to them in Christ, really become participants in the eternal mystery, even though it works in them under the veils of faith. This supernatural conferring of the fruits of redemption accomplished by Christ acquires, according to the Letter to the Ephesians 5:22-23, the character of a spousal donation of Christ himself to the Church similar to the spousal relationship between husband and wife. Therefore, not only the fruits of redemption are a gift, but above all, Christ himself is a gift: he gives himself to the Church as to his spouse.

 6. We should ask the question whether in this matter such analogy does not permit us to penetrate more profoundly and with greater exactitude the essential content of the mystery. We should ask ourselves this question with all the greater reason because this "classical" passage of the Letter to the Ephesians (5:22-23) does not appear in the abstract and isolated, but constitutes a continuity, in a certain sense a continuation of the statements of the Old Testament, which presented the love of God-Yahweh for his chosen people Israel according to the same analogy. We are dealing in the first place with the texts of the prophets who, in their discourses, introduced the similarity of spousal love in order to characterize in a particular way the love which Yahweh has for Israel, a love which on the part of the chosen people was not understood and reciprocated; rather it en. countered infidelity and betrayal. That infidelity and betrayal was expressed especially in idolatry, a worship given to strange gods.

 7. Truth to tell, in the greater part of the cases, the prophets were pointing out in a dramatic manner that very betrayal and infidelity which were called the "adultery" of Israel. However, at the basis of all these statements of the prophets, there is the explicit conviction that the love of Yahweh for the chosen people can and should be compared to the love which unites husband and wife. Here one could quote numerous passages from Isaiah, Hosea, Ezekiel (some of these were already quoted previously when we were analyzing the concept of "adultery" against the background of Christ's words in the Sermon on the Mount). One cannot forget that to the patrimony of the Old Testament belongs also the Song of Solomon in which the image of spousal love is traced- it is true - without the typical analogy of the prophetic texts, which presented in that love, the image of the love of Yahweh for Israel, but also without that negative element which, in the other texts, constitutes the motive of "adultery" or infidelity. Thus then the analogy of the spouses, which enabled the author of the Letter to the Ephesians to define the relationship of Christ to the Church, possesses an abundant tradition in the books of the Old Testament. In analyzing this analogy in the "classic" text of the Letter to the Ephesians, we cannot but refer to that tradition.

 8. To illustrate this tradition we will limit ourselves for the moment to citing a passage of the text of Isaiah. The prophet says: "Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be put to shame, for you will forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the Lord has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. . . but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you " (Is 54:4-7; 10).

 During our next meeting we shall begin the analysis of the text cited from Isaiah.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 22 SEPTEMBER, 1982
Relationship of Christ to the church connected with tradition of the Old Testament prophets, especially Isaiah

 The general audience of 22 September took place in St. Peter's Square in the presence of a large crowd, in spite of threatening weather. Pope John Paul delivered the following address.

 1. The Letter to the Ephesians, by means of a comparison of the relation between Christ and the Church with the spousal relationship of husband and wife, refers to the tradition of the prophets of the Old Testament. To illustrate it we quote the following passage of Isaiah:

 "Fear not, for you will not be ashamed; be not confounded, for you will not be put to shame; for you will forget the shame of your youth. and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. For the Lord has called you like a wife forsaken and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I forsook you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing wrath for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love, I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. For this is like the days of Noah to me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed, says the Lord, who has compassion on you." (Is 54:4-10).
Back to the mystery hidden in God

 2. The text of Isaiah in this case does not contain the reproaches made to Israel as an unfaithful spouse, which echoes so strongly in the other texts, in particular of Hosea and Ezekiel. Thanks to this, the essential content of the biblical analogy becomes more evident: the love of God - Yahweh for the chosen people - Israel is expressed as the love of the man-spouse for the woman chosen to be his wife by means of the marriage alliance. In this way Isaiah explains the events which make up the course of Israel's history, going back to the mystery hidden as it were in the very heart of God. In a certain sense, he leads us in the same direction in which, after many centuries, the author of the Letter to the Ephesians will lead us. The latter - basing himself on the redemption already accomplished in Christ - will reveal much more fully the depth of the mystery itself.

 3. The text of the prophet has all the coloring of the tradition and the mentality of the people of the Old Testament. The prophet, speaking in the name of God and as it were, with his words, addresses Israel as a husband would address the wife chosen by him. These words brim over with an authentic ardor of love and at the same time place in relief the whole specific character both of the situation and of the outlook proper to that age. They underline that the choice on the part of the man takes away the woman's "dishonor", which, according to the opinion of society, seems connected with the marriageable state, whether original (virginity), or secondary (widowhood), or finally that deriving from repudiation of a wife who is not loved (cf. Dt 24:1) or in the case of an unfaithful wife. However, the text quoted does not mention infidelity it indicates however the motive of the love of compassion" (1), indicating thereby not merely the social nature of marriage in the Old Testament, but also the very character of the gift, which is the love of God for the spouse-Israel: a gift which derives entirely from God's initiative. In other words: indicating the dimension of grace, whir h from the beginning is contained in that love. This is perhaps the strongest "declaration of love', on God's part, linked up with the solemn oath of faithfulness forever.
Creator and Lord

 4. The analogy of the love which unites spouses is brought out strongly in this passage. Isaiah says: ". . . for your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called." (Is 54:5). So, then, in that text God himself, in all his majesty as Creator and Lord of creation, is explicitly, called "spouse of the chosen people." This "spouse" speaks of his great "compassion". which will not " depart" from Israel's house, but will constitute a stable foundation of the "alliance of peace" with him. Thus the motif of spousal love and of marriage is linked with the motif of alliance. Besides the "Lord of hosts" calls himself not only "creator", but also "redeemer". The text has theological content of extraordinary richness.
Continuity of analogy

 5. Comparing the text of Isaiah with the Letter to the Ephesians and noting the continuity regarding the analogy of spousal love and of marriage, we should point out at the same time a certain diversity of theological viewpoint. The author of the letter already in the first chapter speaks of the mystery of love and of election, whereby "God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" embraces mankind in his Son, especially as a mystery "hidden in the mind of God". This is a mystery of election to holiness ("to be holy and blameless before him" Eph 1:4) and of adoption to be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ" Eph 1:5). In this context, the deduction of the analogy confound in Isaiah ("for you Maker is you husband, the Lord of hosts is his name" Is 54:5), seems to be a foreshortened view constituting a part of the theological perspective. The first dimension of love and of election, as a mystery hidden for ages in God, is a paternal and not a "conjugal" dimension. According to the Letter to the Ephesians the first characteristic note of that mystery remains connected with the very paternity of God, set out in relief particularly by the prophets (cf. Hos 11:1-4; Is 63:3-9; 64:7; Mal 1:61.
Theological perspective

 6. The analogy of spousal love and of marriage appears only when the "Creator" and the "Holy One of Israel" of the text of Isaiah is manifested as "Redeemer". Isaiah says: "for your Maker is your husband. the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer" (Is 54 5). Already in this text it is possible, in a certain sense, to read the parallelism between the "spouse" and the "Redeemer". Passing to the Letter to the Ephesians we should observe that this thought is fully developed there. The figure of the Redeemer (2) is already delineated in the first chapter as proper to him who is the first 'beloved Son" of the Father (Eph 1:6), beloved from eternity: of him in whom all of us have been loved by the Father "for ages". It is the Son of the same substance of the Father, "in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace" (Eph 1:7). The same Son, as Christ (or as the Messiah) "has loved the Church and has given himself up for her" (Eph 5:25).

 This splendid formulation of the Letter to the Ephesians summarizes in itself and at the same time sets in relief the elements of the Canticle on the Servant of Yahweh and of the Canticle of Zion (cf. e.g., Is 42:1; 53:8-12; 54:8).

 And thus the giving of himself up for the Church is equivalent to carrying out the work of redemption. In this way the " Creator Lord of hosts" of the text of Isaiah becomes the "Holy One of Israel", of the new Israel, as Redeemer. In the Letter to the Ephesians the theological perspective of the prophetic text is preserved and at the same time deepened and transformed. There enter new revealed moments: the trinitarian, christological (3) and finally the eschatological moment.
His salvific love

 7. Thus St. Paul, writing the letter to the People of God of the New Covenant and precisely to the Church of Ephesus, will no longer repeat: "your Maker is your husband", but will show in what way the " Redeemer ", who is the first born Son and for ages "beloved of the Father", reveals contemporaneously his salvific love which consists in giving himself up for the Church, as spousal love whereby he espouses the Church and maces it his own Body. Thus the analogy of the prophetic texts of the Old Testament (in this case especially of the Book of Isaiah) remains preserved in the Letter to the Ephesians and at the same time obviously transformed. To the analogy there corresponds a mystery which is expressed and, in a certain sense, explained by means of it. In the text of Isaiah this mystery is scarcely outlined, "half-open" as it were; in the Letter to the Ephesians, however it is fully revealed (but of course without ceasing to be a mystery). In the Letter to the Ephesians there is explicitly clear the eternal dimension of the mystery inasmuch as it is hidden in God ("Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ") and the dimension of its historical fulfillment, according to its christological and at the same ecclesiological dimension. The analogy of marriage refers especially to the second dimension. Also in the prophets (in Isaiah) the analogy of marriage referred directly to an historical dimension: it was linked with the history of the chosen people of the Old Covenant, with the history of Israel; on the other hand the christological and the ecclesiological dimension, in the Old Testament fulfillment of the mystery, was found only as in embryo: it was only foretold.

 Nonetheless it is clear that the text of Isaiah helps us to understand better the Letter to the Ephesians and the great analogy of the spousal love of Christ and the Church.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 29 SEPTEMBER, 1982
Analogy of spousal love indicates the radical character of grace

 The general audience of 29 September took place in St. Peter's Square in the presence of a large crowd of pilgrims from various parts of the world. Pope John Paul delivered the following address following the theme of the last several weeks.

 1. In the Letter to the Ephesians (5:22-33)-as in the prophets of the Old Testament (e.g., in Isaiah) -we find the great analogy of marriage or of the spousal love between Christ and the Church.

 What function does this analogy fulfill in regard to the mystery revealed in the Old and the New Covenant? The answer to this question must be gradual. First of all, the analogy of spousal or conjugal love helps to penetrate the very essence of the mystery. It helps to understand it up to a certain point- naturally. in an analogical way. It is obvious that the analogy of earthly human love of the husband for his wife, of human spousal love, cannot provide an adequate and complete understanding of that absolutely transcendent reality which is the divine mystery, both as hidden for ages in God, and in its "historical" fulfillment in time, when "Christ so loved the Church and gave himself up for her" (Eph 5:25). The mystery remains transcendent in regard to this analogy as in regard to any other analogy, whereby we seek to express it in human language. At the same time, however, this analogy offers the possibility of a certain cognoscitive " penetration " into the very essence of the mystery.
Realized by Christ

 2. The analogy of spousal love permits us to understand in a certain way the mystery which for ages was hidden in God, and which in turn was realized by Christ, as a love proper to a total and irrevocable gift of self on the part of God to man in Christ. It is a question of "man" in the personal and at the same time community dimension (this community dimension is expressed in the Book of Isaiah and in the prophets as "Israel", in the Letter to the Ephesians as the a Church "; one could say: the People of God of the Old and of the New Covenant). We may add that in both conceptions, the community dimension is placed, in a certain sense, in the forefront, but not to such an extent as completely to hide the personal dimension, which, on the other hand, pertains simply to the very essence of conjugal love. In both cases we are dealing rather with a significant "reduction of the community to the person": Israel and the Church are considered as bride-person in relation to the bridegroom - person ("Yahweh" and " Christ "). Every concrete "I" should find itself in that biblical "we".
God of the Covenant

 3. So then, the analogy of which we are speaking permits us to understand, in a certain degree, the revealed mystery of the living God who is Creator and Redeemer (and as such he is, at the same time, God of the Covenant); it permits us to understand this mystery in the manner of a spousal love, just as it allows us to understand it also in the manner of a love of a compassion" (according to the text of the Book of Isaiah), or in the manner of a " paternal " love (according to the Letter to the Ephesians, especially in the first chapter). The above-mentioned ways of understanding the mystery are also without doubt analogical. The analogy of spousal love contains in itself a characteristic of the mystery, which is not directly emphasized either by the analogy of the love of compassion or by the analogy of paternal love (or by any other analogy used in the Bible to which we would have referred).
Radical and total gift

 4. The analogy of spousal love seems to emphasize especially the aspect of the gift of self on the part of God to man, "for ages" chosen in Christ (literally: to "Israel", to the "Church")-a total (or rather "radical") and irrevocable gift in its essential character, that is, as a gift. This gift is certainly "radical" and therefore "total". We cannot speak of that "totality" in a metaphysical sense. Man, indeed, as a creature is not capable of "receiving" the gift of God in the transcendental fullness of his divinity. Such a " total gift " (uncreated) is shared only by God himself in the "triune communion of the Persons". On the contrary, the gift of himself on the part of God to man, of which the analogy of spousal love speaks, can only have the form of a participation in the divine nature (cf. 2 Pet 1:4), as is made clear by theology with very great precision. Nevertheless, according to this measure, the gift made to man on the part of God in Christ is a "total", that is, "radical" gift, as is indicated precisely by the analogy of spousal love. It is, in a certain sense, "all" that God "could" give of himself to man, considering the limited faculties of man-creature. In this way, the analogy of spousal love indicates the "radical" character of grace: of the whole order of created grace.
Sacrament and mystery

 5. The foregoing seems to be what can be said in reference to the primary function of our great analogy, which has passed from the writings of the prophets of the Old Testament to the Letter to the Ephesians, where, as has already been noted, it underwent a significant transformation. The analogy of marriage, as a human reality, in which spousal love is incarnated, helps to a certain degree and in a certain way to understand the mystery of grace as an eternal reality in God and as an "historical" fruit of mankind's redemption in Christ. However, we said before that this biblical analogy not only "explains" the mystery, but on the other hand the mystery defines and determines the adequate manner of understanding the analogy, and precisely this element, in which the biblical authors see "the image and likeness" of the divine mystery. So then, the comparison of marriage (because of spousal love) to the relationship of "Yahweh-Israel" in the Old Covenant and of "Christ-Church" in the New Covenant decides, at the same time, the manner of understanding marriage itself and determines this manner.

 6. This is the second function of our great analogy. In the perspective of this function we approach, in fact, the problem of "sacrament and mystery" that is, in the general and fundamental sense, the problem of the sacramentality of marriage. This seems particularly justified in the light of the analysis of the Letter to the Ephesians (5:22-33). Indeed, in presenting the relationship of Christ to the Church, in the image of the conjugal union of husband and wife, the author of this letter speaks in the most general and at the same time fundamental way, not only of the fulfillment of the eternal divine mystery, but also of the way in which that mystery is expressed in the visible order, of the way in which it has become visible, and therefore has entered into the sphere of sign.
Visibility of the mystery

 7. By the term " sign " we mean here simply the "visibility of the Invisible ". The mystery for ages hidden in God-that is, invisible- has become visible first of all in the very historical event of Christ. The relationship of Christ to the Church, which is defined in the Letter to the Ephesians, as "a great mystery", constitutes the fulfillment and the concretization of the visibility of the mystery itself. Moreover, the fact that the author of the Letter to the Ephesians compares the indissoluble relationship of Christ to the Church to the relationship between husband and wife, that is, to marriage-referring at the same time to the words of Genesis (2:24), which by God's creative act originally instituted marriage-turns our attention to what was already presented previously-in the context of the very mystery of creation-as the " visibility of the Invisible ", to the very "origin" of the theological history of man.

 It can be said that the visible sign of marriage "in the beginning", inasmuch as it is linked to the visible sign of Christ and of the Church, to the summit of the salvific economy of God, transfers the eternal plan of love into the "historical" dimension and makes it the foundation of the whole sacramental order. It is a special merit of the author of the Letter to the Ephesians that he brought these two signs together, and made of them one great sign- that is, a great sacrament (sacramentum magnum).
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 6 OCTOBER, 1982
Marriage is the central point of the "sacrament of creation"

 The general audience of 6 October took place in St. Peter's Square in spite of inclement weather. Pope John Paul dedicated an address following the theme of the last several weeks.

 1. We continue the analysis of the classical text of the fifth chapter of the Letter to the Ephesians, 5:22-23. For this purpose it is necessary to quote some phrases contained in one of the preceding analyses devoted to this theme: "Man appears in the visible world as the highest expression of the divine gift, because he bears within himself the interior dimension of the gift. And with it he brings into the world his particular likeness to God, whereby he transcends and dominates also his 'visibility' in the world, his corporeality, his masculinity or femininity, his nakedness. Resulting from this likeness there is also the primordial awareness of the conjugal significance of the body, pervaded by the mystery of original innocence." (L'amore umano nel piano divino, Citta del Vaticano 1980, p. 90). These phrases sum up in a few words the result of the analyses devoted to the first chapters of the Book of Genesis, in relation to the words with which Christ, in his conversation with the Pharisees on the subject of marriage and its indissolubility, refers to the "beginning". Other phrases of the same analysis pose the problem of the primordial sacrament: "Thus, in this dimension, there is constituted a primordial sacrament, understood as a sign which effectively transmits in the visible world the invisible mystery hidden from eternity in God. And this is the mystery of Truth and Love, the mystery of the divine life in which man really shares. . . It is the original innocence which initiates this participation. . . " (ibid., p.90).
The state of man before original sin

 2. It is necessary to look again at the content of these statements in the light of the Pauline doctrine expressed in the Letter to the Ephesians, bearing in mind especially the passage of chapter 5, verses 22-23, situated in the overall context of the entire letter. In any event, the letter authorizes us to do this, because the author himself, in chapter 5, v. 31, refers to the "beginning", and precisely to the words of the institution of marriage in the. Book of Genesis (Gen 2:24). In what sense can we see in these words a statement about the sacrament, about the primordial sacrament? The previous analyses of the biblical "beginning" have led us gradually to this, in consideration of the state of the original endowment of man in existence and in grace, which was the state of innocence and original justice. The Letter to the Ephesians leads us to approach this situation-that is, the state of man before original sin-from the point of view ,0f the mystery hidden in God from eternity. In fact, we read in the first phrases of the letter that "God, Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ. . . has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Eph 1:3-4).
God's eternal plan

 3. The Letter to the Ephesians opens up before us the supernatural world of the eternal mystery, of the eternal plans of God the Father concerning man. These plans precede the "creation of the world", and therefore also the creation of man. At the same time those divine plans begin to be put into effect already in; the entire reality of creation. If also the state of original innocence of man created, as male and female, in the likeness of God, pertains to the mystery of creation, this implies that the primordial gift conferred on man by God already includes within itself the fruit of having been chosen, of which we read in the Letter to the Ephesians: "He chose us. . . that we should be holy and blameless before him" (Eph 1:4). This indeed seems to be indicated by the words of the Book of Genesis, when the Creator-Elohim finds in man- male and female- who appeared before him, a good worthy of gratification: "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen 1:31). Only after sin, after the breaking of the original covenant with the Creator, man feels the need to hide himself "from the Lord God": "I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself" (Gen 3:10).

 4. On the contrary, before sin, man bore in his soul the fruit of eternal election in Christ, the eternal Son of the Father. By means of the grace of this election man, male and female, was "holy and blameless" before God. That primordial (or original) holiness and purity was expressed also in the fact that, although both were naked, they were not ashamed" (Gen 2:25), as we have already sought to make evident in the previous analyses. Comparing the testimony of the "beginning", found in the first chapters of the Book of Genesis, with the testimony of the Letter to the Ephesians, one must deduce that the reality of man's creation, was already imbued by the perennial election of man in Christ: called to sanctity through the grace of the adoption as sons ("he destined us to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved" (Eph 1:5-6).
Supernatural endowment

 5. Man, male and female, shared from the "beginning" in this super natural gift. This bounty was granted in consideration of him, who from eternity was "beloved" as Son, even though- according to the dimensions of time and history- it had preceded the incarnation of this "beloved Son" and also the "redemption" which we have in him "through his blood" (Eph 1:7). The redemption was to become the source of man's supernatural endowment after sin and, in a certain sense, in spite of sin. This super-natural endowment, which took place before original sin, that is, the grace of justice and original innocence-an endowment which was the fruit of man's election in Christ before the ages-was accomplished precisely in reference to him, to the beloved One, while anticipating chronologically his coming in the body. In the dimensions of the mystery of creation the election to the dignity of adopted sonship was proper only to the "first Adam", that is, to the man created in the image and likeness of God, male and female.
The subject of holiness

 6. In what way is the reality of the sacrament, of the primordial sacrament, verified in this context? In the analysis of the "beginning", of which we quoted a passage a short time ago, we said that "the sacrament, as a visible sign, is constituted by man inasmuch as he is a body, through his visible masculinity and femininity. The body in fact, and only it, is capable of making visible what is invisible: the spiritual and the divine. It was created to transfer into the visible reality of the world the mystery hidden from eternity in God, and thus to be its sign" (loc. cit. p. 90).

 This sign has besides an efficacy of its own, as I also said: "Original innocence linked to the experience of the conjugal significance of the body" has as its effect "that man feels himself, in his body as male and female, the subject of holiness" (ibid., p. 91). "He feels" himself such and he is such from the "beginning". That holiness conferred originally on man by the Creator pertains to the reality of the "sacrament of creation". The words of Genesis 2:24, "a man . . . cleaves to his wife and they become one flesh", spoken in the context of this original reality in a theological sense, constitute marriage as an integral part and, in a certain sense, a central part of the "sacrament of creation". They constituted, or perhaps rather, they simply confirm, the character of its origin. According to these words, marriage is a sacrament inasmuch as it is an integral part and I would say, the central point of "the sacrament of creation". In this sense it is the primordial sacrament.

 7. The institution of marriage, according to the words of Genesis 2:24, expresses not only the beginning of the fundamental human community which through the "procreative" power which is proper to it ("be fruitful and multiply") (Gen 1:28) serves to continue the work of creation, but it expresses at the same time the salvific initiative of the Creator, corresponding to the eternal election of man, of which the Letter to the Ephesians speaks. That salvific initiative comes from God-Creator and its supernatural efficacy is identified with the very act of man's creation in the state of original innocence. In this state, already in the act of man's creation, there fructified his eternal election in Christ. In this way one must recognize that the original sacrament of creation draws its efficacy from the "beloved Son" (cf. Eph 1:6 where it speaks of the "grace which he gave us in his beloved Son"). If then it treats of marriage, one can deduce that-instituted in the context of the sacrament of creation in its globality, that is, in the state of original innocence-it should serve not only to prolong the work of creation, that is, of procreation, but also to extend to further generations of men the same sacrament of creation, that is, the supernatural fruits of man's eternal election on the part of the Father in the eternal Son: those fruits with which man was endowed by God in the very act of creation.

 The Letter to the Ephesians seems to authorize us to interpret in this way the Book of Genesis and the truth about the "beginning" of man and of marriage contained therein.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 13 OCTOBER, 1982
Loss of original sacrament restored with redemption in marriage-sacrament

 

 At the general audience in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday morning, 13 October, Pope John Paul II continued his treatment of the subject of the sacramentality of marriage, basing his analysis on St. Paul's Letter to the Ephesians.

 1. In our previous consideration we have tried to study in depth - in the light of the Letter to the Ephesians - the sacramental " beginning" of man and marriage in the state of original justice (or innocence).

 We know, however, that the heritage of grace was driven out of the human heart at the time of the breaking of the first covenant with the Creator. The perspective of procreation, instead of being illuminated by the heritage of original grace, given by God no sooner had he infused a rational soul, became: dimmed by the heritage of original sin. We can say that marriage, as a primordial sacrament, was deprived of that supernatural efficacy which at the moment of its institution belonged to the sacrament of creation in its totality. Nonetheless, even in this state, that is, in the state of man's hereditary sinfulness, marriage never ceased being, the figure of that sacrament we read about in the Letter to the Ephesians (Eph 5:22-33) and which the author of that letter does not hesitate to call a "great mystery". Can we not perhaps deduce that marriage has remained the platform for the actuation of God's eternal designs, according to which the sacrament of creation had drawn near to men and had prepared them for the sacrament of redemption, introducing them into the dimension of the work of salvation? The analysis of the Letter to the Ephesians, particularly the "classic" text of chapter 5, verses 22 to 33 seems to lean toward such a conclusion.
Redemptive gift of himself for the Church

 2. When in verse 31 the author refers to the words of the institution of marriage contained in Genesis (2:24: "For this reason man will leave his father and mother and will cling to his wife, and the two shall become one body"), and then immediately states: "This is a great mystery: I mean that it refers to Christ and the Church" (Eph 5 32), he seems to indicate not only the identity of the mystery hidden in God from all eternity, but also that continuity of its actuation, which exists between the primordial sacrament connected with the supernatural gracing of man in creation itself and the new gracing, which occurred when "Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her to make her holy. . . " (Eph 5:25-26) gracing that can be defined in its entirety as the sacrament of redemption. In this redemptive gift of himself "for" the Church, there is also contained - according to Pauline thought - Christ's gift of himself to the Church. in the image of the nuptial relationship that unites husband and wife in marriage. In this way. the sacrament of redemption again takes on, in a certain sense. the figure and form of the primordial sacrament. To the marriage of the first husband and wife, as a sign of the supernatural gracing of man in the sacrament of creation, there corresponds the marriage, or rather the analogy of the marriage, of Christ with the Church as the fundamental "great" sign of the supernatural gracing of man in the sacrament of redemption - of the gracing in which there is renewed in a definitive way the covenant of the grace of election, which was broken in the "beginning" by sin.
Supernatural gracing

 3. The image contained in the quoted passage from the Letter to the Ephesians seems to speak above all of the sacrament of redemption as that definitive fulfillment of the mystery hidden from eternity in God. In this mysterium magnum (great mystery) there is actuated precisely everything that the same Letter to the Ephesians had treated in the first chapter. In fact, as we recall, it says not only "In him (that is, in Christ) God chose us before the world began, to be holy and blameless in his sight. . . " (Eph 1:4), but also "in whom (Christ) we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins, so immeasurably generous is God's favor to us. . . (Eph 1:7-8). The new supernatural gracing of man in the "sacrament of redemption" is also a new actuation of the mystery hidden in God from all eternity -new in relation to the sacrament of creation. At this moment, gracing is in a certain sense a "new creation". However, it differs from the sacrament of creation in so far as the original gracing, united to man's creation, constituted that man "in the beginning", through grace, in the state of original innocence and justice. The new gracing of man in the sacrament of redemption, instead, gives him above all the " remission of sins ". Yet even here grace can "abound even more", as St. Paul expresses elsewhere "Where sin increased, grace has abounded even more" (Rom 5:20).

 4. The sacrament of redemption, the fruit of Christ's redemptive love, becomes, on the basis of his spousal love for the Church, a permanent dimension of the life of the Church herself, a fundamental and life-giving dimension. It is the mysterium magnum (great mystery) of Christ and the Church: the eternal mystery actuated by Christ, who "gave himself up for her" (Eph 5:25); the mystery that is continually actuated in the Church, because Christ "loved the Church" (Eph 5:25), uniting himself with her in an indissoluble love, just as spouses, husband and wife, unite themselves in marriage. In this way the Church lives on the sacrament of redemption, and in her turn completes this sacrament as the wife, in virtue of spousal love, completes her husband, which in a certain way had already been pointed out "in the beginning" when the first man found in the first woman "a helper fit for him" (Gen 2:20). Although the analogy in the Letter to the Ephesians does t state it precisely, nevertheless we can add also that the Church united to Christ, as the wife to her husband, draws from the sacrament of redemption all her fruitfulness and spiritual motherhood. Testifying to this in some way are the words of the Letter of St. Peter, when he writes that we have been "reborn not from a corruptible, but from an incorruptible seed, through the living and enduring word of God" (1 Pet 1:23). So the mystery hidden in God from all eternity - the mystery that "in the beginning", in the sacrament of creation, became a visible reality through the union of the first man and woman in the perspective of marriage—becomes in the sacrament of redemption a visible reality of the indissoluble union of Christ with the Church, which the author of the Letter to the Ephesians presents as the nuptial union of spouses, husband and wife.
New actuation of mystery

 5. The sacramentum magnum (the Greek text reads: to mysterion touto mega estin) of the Letter to the Ephesians speaks of the new actuation of the mystery hidden in God from all eternity; the definitive actuation from the point of view of the earthly history of salvation. It speaks besides of "making the mystery visible": the visibility of the Invisible. This visibility is not had unless the mystery ceases to be a mystery. This referred to the marriage constituted in the "beginning", in the state of original innocence, in the context of the sacrament of creation. It refers also to the union of Christ with the Church, as the "great mystery" of the sacrament of redemption. The visibility of the Invisible does not mean - if it can be said this way - a total clearing of the mystery. The mystery, as an object of faith, remains veiled even through what is precisely expressed and fulfilled. The visibility of the Invisible therefore belongs to the order of signs, and the "sign" indicates only the reality of the mystery, but not the "unveiling". As the "first Adam" - man, male and female - created in the state of original innocence and called into this state to conjugal union (in this sense we are speaking of the sacrament of creation) was a - sign of the eternal mystery, so the "second Adam", Christ, united with the Church through the sacrament of redemption by an indissoluble bond, analogous to the indissoluble covenant of spouses, is a definitive sign of the same eternal mystery. Therefore, in speaking about the eternal mystery being actuated, we are speaking also about the fact that it becomes visible with the visibility of the sign. And therefore we are speaking also about the sacramentality of the whole heritage of the sacrament of redemption, in reference to the entire work of creation and redemption, and more so in reference to marriage instituted within the context of the sacrament of creation, as also in reference to the Church as the spouse of Christ, endowed by a quasi-conjugal covenant with him.

 My greetings go to all the pilgrims assembled here today from England, Scotland, Ireland, the Philippines, Canada and the United States.

 In particular I welcome, from England, the members of Her Majesty's Ships "Naiad" and "Fearless". During your visit to Rome may you experience God's gifts of gladness and peace of soul. And may the Lord bless your families at home.

 With special joy I greet the group of friends of the Focolari Movement - the Anglican, Evangelical, Orthodox and Catholic bishops meeting at Rocca di Papa. In your prayer and in the pursuit of truth in love, may our Lord Jesus Christ reveal himself ever more fully to all of you. And may the word of Christ abide always in your hearts.
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 20 OCTOBER, 1982
Marriage an integral part of new sacramental economy

 On Wednesday morning, 20 October, the Holy Father, in the customary general audience in St. Peter's Square, continued his commentary on a passage from the Letter to the Ephesians.

 1. Last Wednesday we spoke of the integral heritage of the Covenant with God, and of the grace originally united to the divine work of creation. Marriage also was a part of this integral heritage - as can be deduced from the text of the Letter to the Ephesians 5:22-23- marriage, that is, as a primordial sacrament instituted from the " beginning" and linked with the sacrament of creation in its globality. The sacramentality of marriage is not merely a model and figure of the sacrament of the Church (of Christ and of the Church), but constitutes also an essential part of the new heritage: that of the Sacrament of Redemption, with which the Church is endowed in Christ.

 Here it is necessary yet again to refer back to Christ's words in Matthew 19:3-9(cf. also Mk 10:5-9), in which Christ, in replying to the question of the Pharisees concerning marriage, refers only and exclusively to its original institution on the part of the Creator at the "beginning". Reflecting on the significance of this reply in the light of the Letter to the Ephesians, and in particular of Ephesians 5:22-23, we end up with a relationship - in a certain sense twofold - of marriage with the whole sacramental order which, in the new Covenant, emerges from the same Sacrament of Redemption.

 2. Marriage as a primordial sacrament constitutes, on the one hand, the figure (and so: the likeness, the analogy), according to which there is constructed the basic main structure of the new economy of salvation and of the sacramental order which draws its origin from the spousal gracing which the Church received from Christ, together with all the benefits of redemption (one could say, using the opening words of the Letter to the Ephesians: "with every spiritual blessing", Eph 1:3). In this way marriage, as a primordial sacrament, is assumed and inserted into the integral structure of the new sacramental economy, arising from Redemption in the form, I would say, of a "prototype": it is assumed and inserted as it were from its very bases. Christ himself, in conversation with the Pharisees (Mt 19:3-9), reconfirmed first of all its existence. Reflecting deeply on this dimension, one would have to conclude that all the sacraments of the New Covenant find in a certain sense their prototype in marriage as the primordial sacrament. This seems to be indicated in the classical passage quoted from the Letter to the Ephesians, as we shall say again soon.

 3. However, the relationship of marriage with the whole sacramental order, deriving from the endowment of the Church with the benefits of the Redemption, is not limited merely to the dimension of model. Christ in his conversation with the Pharisees (Mt 19), not only confirms the existence of marriage instituted from the "beginning" by the Creator, but he declares it also an integral part of the new sacramental economy, of the new order of salvific ."signs" which derives its origin from the Sacrament of Redemption, just as the original economy emerged from the Sacrament of creation; and in fact Christ limited himself to the unique Sacrament which was marriage instituted in the state of innocence and of original justice of man, created male and female in the image and likeness of God".

 4. The new sacramental economy which is constituted on the basis of the sacrament of Redemption, deriving from the spousal gracing of the Church on the part of Christ, differs from the original economy. Indeed, it is directed not to the man of justice and original innocence, but to the man burdened with the heritage of original sin and with the state of sinfulness (status naturae lapsue). It is directed to the man of the threefold concupiscence, according to the classical words of the First Letter of John (2:16), to the man in whom " the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh" (Gal 5:17), according to the Pauline theology (and anthropology), to which we have devoted much space in our previous reflections.

 5. These considerations, following upon a deeper analysis of the significance of Christ's statement in the Sermon on the Mount concerning "the lustful look" as "adultery of the heart", prepare for an understanding of marriage as an integral part of the new sacramental order which has its origin in the Sacrament of Redemption, that is to say in that "great mystery" which as the mystery of Christ and of the Church, determines the sacramentality of the Church itself. These considerations, besides, prepare for an understanding of marriage as a Sacrament of the New Covenant, whose salvific work is organically linked with the ensemble of that ethos which was defined in the previous analyses as the ethos of Redemption. The Letter to the Ephesians expresses the same truth in its own way: it speaks in fact of marriage as a "great" sacrament in a wide paranetic context, that is, in the context of the exhortations of a moral nature, concerning precisely the ethos which should characterize the life of Christians, that is, of people aware of the election which is realized in Christ and in the Church.

 6. Against this vast background of the reflections which emerge from a reading of the Letter to the Ephesians (particularly Eph 5:22-33), one can and should eventually touch again the problem of the sacraments of the Church. The text cited from Ephesians speaks of it in an indirect and, I would say, secondary way, though sufficient to bring this problem within the scope of our considerations. However, it is fitting to clarify here, at least briefly, the sense in which we use the term "sacrament", which is significant for our considerations.

 7. Until now, indeed, we have used the term "sacrament" (in conformity with the whole of biblicalpatristic tradition) (1) in a sense wider than that proper to traditional and contemporary theological terminology, which means by the word "sacrament" the signs instituted by Christ and administered by the Church, which signify and confer divine grace on the person who receives the relative sacrament. In this sense each of the seven sacraments of the Church is characterized by a determinate liturgical action, made up of words (the form) and the specific sacramental "matter" - according to the widespread hylomorphic theory deriving from Thomas Aquinas and the whole scholastic tradition.

 8. In relationship to this rather restricted meaning, we have used in our considerations a wider and perhaps also more ancient and fundamental meaning of the term "sacrament" (2). The Letter to the Ephesians, and especially 5:22-23, seems in a particular way to authorize us to do so. Here sacrament signifies the very mystery of God, which is hidden from eternity, however, not in an eternal concealment, but above all, in its very revelation and actuation (furthermore: in its revelation through its actuation). In this sense we spoke also of the sacrament of creation and of the Sacrament of Redemption. On the basis of the sacrament of creation, one must understand the original sacramentality of marriage (the primordial sacrament). Following upon this, on the basis of the Sacrament of Redemption one can understand the sacramentality of the Church, or rather the sacramentality of the union of Christ with the Church which the author of the Letter to the Ephesians presents under the simile of marriage, of the conjugal union of husband and wife. A careful analysis of the text shows that in this case, it is not merely a comparison in a metaphorical sense, but of a real renewal (or of a "re-creation", that is, of a new creation) of that which constituted the salvific content (in a certain sense, the "salvific substance") of the primordial sacrament. This observation has an essential significance both for the clarification of the sacramentality of the Church (and to this are referred the very significant words of the first chapter of the Constitution Lumen Gentium), and also for the understanding of the sacramentality of marriage understood precisely as one of the sacraments of the Church.

 
GENERAL AUDIENCE: 27 OCTOBER,1982
Indissolubility of sacrament of Marriage in mystery of "redemption of the body"

 Thousands of the faithful were present in St. Peter's Square for the general audience on 27 October during which the Holy Father continued his catechesis on marriage in the light of the Letter to the Ephesians.

 1. The text of the Letter to the Ephesians (5:22-33) speaks of the sacraments of the Church - and in particular of Baptism and the Eucharist - but only in an indirect and, in a certain sense, allusive manner, developing the analogy of marriage in reference to Christ and the Church. And so we read at first that Christ who "loved the Church and gave himself up for her" (5:25), did so "that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the words (5:26). This treats doubtlessly of the sacrament of Baptism which by Christ's institution was from the beginning conferred on those who were converted. The words quoted show very graphically in what way Baptism draws its essential significance and its sacramental power from that spousal love of the Redeemer by means of which there is constituted above all the sacramentality of the Church itself, sacramentum magnum. The same can also be said perhaps of the Eucharist which would see