St. Raphael: Angel of Marriage, Healing, Happy Meetings, Joy and Travel by Angela Carol

Author:Angela Carol [Carol, Angela]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: TAN Books
Published: 2015-04-20T05:00:00+00:00

St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, gave divinely inspired advice for happiness in marriage, writing, “Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord: because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. He is the saviour of his body. Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things.” (Eph. 5:22-24).

Most modern brides resent the idea of being subject or obedient to their husbands. But let them stop to consider this calmly. This idea is not “old-fashioned.” Rather, it is ancient, as ancient as the very creation of the world, and God Himself is the author of it. Where there is harmony, there is law and order. The man leads, the woman follows—carrying with her, like an alabaster box of precious ointment, the secret wisdom of her heart. And a woman is truly wise who recognizes the necessity of man, as husband and father, being the head of the family. When a woman usurps a place that is not hers by right of nature, disorder and discord work havoc in that household. A man’s natural reaction, if his wife will not let him exercise his prerogative of being the head of the family, is to slip out from under the yoke and let her carry both her burden and his!

Sara followed Tobias without a murmur into a strange land, far from the house of her childhood. Centuries later, the Mother of Our Lord, Mary Immaculate, set an example of obedience and humility for all wives and mothers in ages to come when she followed St. Joseph—to Bethlehem, to Egypt and again to Nazareth—without a question, without arguing or complaining, accepting the part assigned to her by the Divine Will.

Perhaps someone may quickly protest, “These men were Saints. My husband is far from being a Saint!” Obedience and submission in a wife, is not to be confused with downright slavery or servitude to an unworthy husband. For, as St. Paul said, “The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church.” (Eph. 5:23). From this we are to understand that the wife obeys her husband for the sake of Christ and she obeys him only in those things that Christ approves or that Christ permits. Consequently, the husband cannot order her around just as he pleases, nor can he expect her to cater every one of his whims and fancies. Christ would not approve of that.

Just as it is in no way humiliating for the Church to obey Christ, so also it should be in no way humiliating for the wife to obey her husband. Besides, this admonition, if borne in mind before marriage, would prevent many a young girl from rushing into an unsuitable marriage. For she would stop to consider whether the man she expects to marry actually has the qualities of character which merit her lifelong respect and obedience.

In the same Epistle, St.

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