Oct 11, 2022
St. Paul’s admonition for wives to undergo their husbands as
the Church submits to Christ (Ephesians 5) is without doubt one of the most
uncomfortable teachings for contemporary Catholics. But it surely’s not simply
obedience in marriage that moderns discover objectionable–and it’s not
simply liberals who can’t abdomen it. Throughout the political and
spiritual spectrum, even amongst self-described traditionalists, we
discover all types of excuses to keep away from obedience. Deeply embedded in
the post-Enlightenment consciousness is the equation of authority
with tyranny and obedience with slavery.
Come to consider it, Scripture tells us that the problem of
authority and obedience is key to mankind’s rupture with
God all through all historical past, starting with the riot of Adam
and Eve. Devil tricked Eve into considering God’s command was a trick
to maintain her down somewhat than a present of affection. Adam went alongside,
selecting to please his spouse somewhat than God, in a perversion of his
God-given inclination towards union via present. Ever since, each
women and men have had a suspicious and guarded stance towards God’s
authority somewhat than a submissive and receptive one, whereas
satirically dominating and manipulating others within the very approach they
feared God was doing to them.
The primordial actuality of authority as present and obedience as
receptivity, which Christ got here to revive in nuptial union with His
Church, is central to theologian Mary Stanford’s new e book, The
Obedience Paradox: Discovering True Freedom in Marriage. Drawing
on Scripture, the theology of the physique, and the entire Magisterial
custom of the Church on marital obedience, Stanford affords not
only a protection of the normal educating, however a profound
illumination of how each wives and husbands can discover true freedom
in submitting to God’s design for what Pope Pius XI referred to as “the
order of affection” in marriage, which is each mutual and
asymmetrical.
Stanford’s presentation will likely be liberating significantly for
these open-hearted Catholics who, whereas wishing to be trustworthy to
Church educating, worry that reiterating this explicit level of the
Scriptural and Magisterial doctrine on marriage will simply create an
alternative for domination and abuse. But not solely wives, and never
solely married {couples}, however all Catholics can study from how
obedience is lived in marriage, and see that obedient receptivity
is on the core of what it means to be a human individual.
Hyperlinks
Mary Stanford, The Obedience Paradox: Discovering True Freedom
in Marriage
https://www.osvcatholicbookstore.com/product/the-obedience-paradox-finding-true-freedom-in-marriage
Pope Pius XI on marriage: Casti connubii
https://www.vatican.va/content material/pius-xi/en/encyclicals/paperwork/hf_p-xi_enc_19301231_casti-connubii.html
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