Monday, March 6, 2017

Amoris Laetitia - Par. 218


218.  Another great challenge of marriage preparation is to help couples realize that marriage is not something that happens once for all.  Their union is real and irrevocable, confirmed and consecrated by the sacrament of matrimony.  Yet in joining their lives, the spouses assume an active and creative role in a lifelong project.  Their gaze now has to be directed to the future that, with the help of God's grace, they are daily called to build.  For this very reason, neither spouse can expect the other to be perfect.  Each must set aside all illusions and accept the other as he or she actually is: an unfinished product, needing to grow, a work in progress.  A persistently critical attitude towards one's partner is a sign that marriage was not entered into as a project to be worked on together, with patience, understanding, tolerance and generosity.  Slowly but surely, love will then give way to constant questioning and criticism, dwelling on each other's good and bad points, issuing ultimatums and engaging in competition and self-justification.  The couple then prove incapable of helping one another build a mature union.  This fact needs to be realistically presented to newly married couples from the outset, so that they can grasp that the wedding is "just the beginning".  By saying "I do", they embark on a journey that requires them to overcome all obstacles standing in the way of their reaching the goal.  The nuptial blessing that they receive is a grace and an incentive for this journey. They can only benefit from sitting down and talking to one another about how, concretely, they plan to achieve their goal.

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