As the sacrament of charity, the Eucharist is intimately connected with the sacrament of marriage. In his Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis, Pope Benedict XVI challenges the People of God to undertake a journey of what he calls “eucharistic consistency.” In other words, “worship pleasing to God can never be a purely private matter, without consequences for our relationships with others” (Sacramentum Caritatis, 83).
This holds true particularly to those who embraced the nuptial vocation. Ontologically speaking, the Eucharist strengthens the indissoluble unity and love of the Christian marriage by imparting a dynamic of continual and unconditional self-giving of the spouses to each other. In marriage, the consecration formula becomes a lifestyle. “Take this and eat. This is my body which is being given up for you. Take this … and drink. This is the cup of my blood (which) is being shed for you”. As occurs in the Eucharist, in marriage love is gratuitously given to be received. And when it is received with an openness of heart it has the power to transform the receiver in itself.
The spouses learn to give themselves to each other from the school of the Eucharist. Christ in the Eucharist becomes one with his communicant. His flesh and blood become the flesh and blood of the believer who receives Him in faith. Thus a nuptial union is created between the two. The same happens in marriage as St Paul rightly explains in his letter to the Ephesians. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church” (Eph 5, 31-32).
Loving one’s spouse means loving him/her “to the end” (Jn 13, 1). This is the key attitude which motivated Jesus to institute the Eucharist: a love that knows no limits. An emptiness of self that urged him to serve the ones he loved to the end (see Phil 2, 7). In this way, Jesus was to fulfil his messianic mission on earth, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10, 10).
Can you as a husband/wife tell by your words and way of relating to your spouse that you have married him/her because like Jesus you want that s/he may have life, and have it abundantly? Are you ready to be seriously committed to make your marriage work in this direction? If yes, why don’t you become familiar with the Eucharistic Christ? Why don’t you learn from Him the kind of love that makes a marriage work as the first letter to the Corinthians proclaims? “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things endures all things” (1 Cor 13, 4-7). Imagine if both of you harbour this Eucharistic love for one another. How different your married life would be!
As the Bible shows, this kind of love has only one destiny: it “never ends” (see 1 Cor 13, 8). Dear husbands and wives, parents and families, do not be afraid. This love is for you to live and cherish. It is available for you in the most precious sacrament of the Eucharist, the spousal sacrament! Go for it!
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Gwann