Can We Trust Catholic Marriage Advice?!?

Kansas City, Kan., Archbishop Joseph Naumann is a well-meaning soul and fearless conservative leader of his faithful flock.

However . . . 

His advice on the sordid topic of marriage is from a liturgical perspective informed by scripture and his ministry.

This perspective is valuable but it doesn't cover more practical present day considerations confronting younger couples like marathon arguments over mutual respect, household finances, sex, video gaming time or brunch budgets.

Meanwhile . . .

Most reasonable people know that more than a little bit of grace should be granted to people who have suffered divorce because neither faith leaders nor family can ever really knows what goes on behind closed doors betwixt married people.

Moreover . . . 

Marriage and divorce just don't seem like issues wherein the opinions of the congregation or politicos can offer much useful help. 

Still . . . TKC doesn't really know because we've never been married despite out slavish devotion to hottie models and the local discourse. Also, bloggers aren't great marriage material . . . Imagine that. 

Similarly . . . 

Here is a far more eloquent sentiment from another dude who ALSO has never tied the knot . . .

Our secular, cultural understanding of marriage is that it is a contract between a man and a woman to love each other.  Our secular, cultural expectation of love is for the other person to make me happy, to make me feel good. Once the other person no longer pleases me, makes me feel good, then I am free to end the marriage, to end the contract. Thus, we see the high prevalence of divorce in our country.

"Christian marriage, as St. Paul described in his Letter to the Ephesians (5: 21-33), is a call to become an icon for our Lord’s love for his spouse, the church. St. Paul began the passage by challenging the Ephesians: “Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.” The next verse, however, raises the eyebrows of many in our culture because Paul wrote: “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.” Many people fail to read on where St. Paul wrote: “Husbands love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her.” How did Jesus love the church? He died for her. He gave his life on Calvary for her.

"Jesus calls husbands and wives to have a mutual subordination to each other. Christian marriage is a covenant, not a contract. A covenant, unlike a contract, is not about a mutual agreement of terms where if one party does not fulfill the terms, the contract is null and void.

"A covenant is a union of persons in the Lord. It is an unbreakable bond, where each spouse is seeking the good of the other before their own wants. The covenant of marriage is not about the other person pleasing me, but my promise before God to seek their good above my own desires!"

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Married or not, we all have a stake in marriage - The Leaven Catholic Newspaper

Christian marriage is a covenant, not a contract.