Tuesday, January 3, 2017

Amoris Laetitia - Par. 156



156.  Every form of sexual submission must be clearly rejected.  This includes all improper interpretations of the passage in the Letter to the Ephesians where Paul tells women to "be subject to your husbands" (Eph 5:22).  This passage mirrors the cultural categories of the time, but our concern is not with its cultural matrix but with the revealed message that it conveys.  As Saint John Paul II wisely observed: "Love excludes every kind of subjection whereby the wife might become a servant or a slave of the husband... The community or unity which they should establish through marriage is constituted by a reciprocal donation of self, which is also a mutual subjection".162  Hence Paul goes on to say that "husbands should love their wives as their own bodies" (Eph 5:28).  The biblical text is actually concerned with encouraging everyone to overcome a complacent individualism and to be constantly mindful of others:  "Be subject to one another" (Eph 5:21).  In marriage, this reciprocal "submission" takes on a special meaning, and is seen as a freely chosen mutual belonging marked by fidelity, respect and care.  Sexuality is inseparably at the service of this conjugal friendship, for it is meant to aid the fulfillment of the other.

162 Catechesis (11 August 1982), 4: Insegnamenti V/3 (1982), 205-206.

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