How absurd. Two people who love each other want all of each other; they cannot be content either with a half-given or half-received love; it must be all or nothing, else their protestations of true love are a mockery.

There are two powerful elements in a long-lasting marital union; two things that probably express the greatest gifts that the partners expect from and can give to each other -

There is the gift that the husband gives to his wife - that is, a total commitment both to the permanency of the union and to the happiness of his wife.

A good wife wants to know that her husband truly meant it when he vowed to "cleave only unto her, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part." She is entitled to the security that comes from knowing her husband is committed to the permanency of their marriage. Her love for him will flourish best in an environment of knowing that his deepest desire is not to extract happiness from her, but rather to bring it to her. When he fulfils these things, a godly husband makes himself a type-picture of God; he becomes to his wife what Christ wishes to be to the Church.

There is the gift that the wife gives to her husband - that is, a loving abandonment to the desire of her husband, knowing that she can trust him utterly to do her no harm.

There is perhaps no more sacred, nor more prized gift that a virtuous woman can give to her husband than an uninhibited surrender to his love, a yielding that he knows she would rather die than offer to any other man. In this she shows both the depth of her love for him, and the degree of her trust in him. Thus she becomes a picture of the relationship the Church should have with Christ.

There is no limit to what God can do for you, through you, with you, if you are available to everything he has for you.

END