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03/18/2025
Let’s be honest, these are not good times for Christians. It is not easy for us to live a life according to the demands of the Gospel. The university, the office, the workshop, the factory, even the home, have often become hostile places for us. In all these places, it seems that the truth has been outlawed. That is why we thank God and all those who have made it possible for the truth about man and marriage to be shown to us clearly again.
We have been shown that: Man was the last of the creatures to be created by God, although without him creation would have no meaning. This man, when night comes, feels lonely and unhappy: he has no “help suitable for him,” in whom to see the reflection of his own eyes, in whom to pour out his pains and joys, with whom to share anxieties and hopes. Even Adam, who can speak with God in person, finally asks for a little human company. Thus, woman is presented to him, with a divine gift capable of calming his misery, to the point that he can exclaim: “This one is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!” This declaration expresses that both form one reality, man and woman, with the same nature and dignity, which will become “one flesh” in the physical and spiritual actor of love and in the child who will be born, a unique flesh of two persons.
We have been shown that: “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife.” We see how perfect divine love spreads and incarnates in human love in the couple, that is, in marriage, which in turn continues to spread in children and in the world. The biblical spirituality of marriage certainly includes corporeality, that is, sexuality. But human sexuality cannot be an end in itself, it cannot be blind and closed in on itself, it cannot be reduced only to physical, animal aspects; it must be open to life, to an abundant life.
Finally, we have been shown that: the sin of our first parents “pushes them to be like God,” rejecting their limits. And then pride arises, and the shame of nakedness. Man and woman no longer accept themselves as they are; the harmony between them and with God has been broken. Sin affects the lives of engaged couples and marriages. Sin makes that balance between individuality and total communion difficult. It may be easy to become one flesh sexually, but certainly mistakes, misunderstandings, harsh words, thoughtlessness, contempt, etc., make that same ease not exist on the level of deep and true love. For that union to occur on both levels, we must follow the teaching of Saint Paul who teaches us to: “Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good; be kind to one another; do not repay evil for evil.” And if we fail in any of these things because we turn inward, we must always forgive, but not in just any way, but in the way that the writer J. L. Borges fantastically rediscovers for us this aspect of the story of Cain and Abel.
Cain and Abel meet after the death of the latter. They were walking through the desert and recognized each other from afar because both were tall. The brothers, sitting on the ground, lit a fire and ate. They were silent, as tired people are when the day declines. In the sky, some stars that still had no name appeared. In the light of the flames, Cain noticed on Abel’s forehead the mark of the stone and, dropping the bread he was about to put in his mouth, asked forgiveness for his crime. Abel replied: “Did you kill me or did I kill you? I no longer remember: we are here together as before.” “Now I know that you have truly forgiven me,” said Cain, “because to forget is to forgive.” Abel replied slowly: “That is so. While remorse lasts, guilt lasts.”
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