Evil triumphs when good men do nothing - Edmund Burke

Friday, January 18, 2013

The Three crises in married love and their resolution - Introduction - Bishop Fulton J Sheen

The Three crises in married love and their resolution - Introduction

The Three crises in married love, which if not conquered lead to decay are:
1 - The crisis of sex
2 - The crisis of tolerance
3 - The crisis of boredom and divorce

Corresponding to these three crises are three elevations of love by which love is lifted to new peaks of peace, serenity and happiness. The three elevations corresponding to each crisis are:

1 - the discovery of personality
2 - the happiness of the beloved
3 - the divine origin of love

Love never mounts to a high level without a death to a lower one

Before applying this law to the crises of marriage, let us see how it applied to the love of Our Lord to His Blessed Mother. There were two phases in their relationship: one from Bethlehem to Cana; the other from Cana to Calvary.

In the first phase Mary was just the Mother of Jesus, Our Lord. But at the marriage feast of Cana she had to decide whether He was to work His first miracle, and thereby reveal Himself as the Messiah and Saviour of the world. This revelation would eventually lead to His Crucifixion. Once Mary had made her decision and had consented to His Ministry and Death, she mounted from the role of being His Mother to being the Mother of all whom He would redeem. To signify that universal womanhood, He called her at Cana and the Cross, not "mother", but "Woman" which typified the motherhood of redeemed humanity. She was the new Eve, just as He was the new Adam.

Applying the law to marriage, we find that crises do not mean the end of love: they are invitations to enjoy it one a higher plane.

A crisis does not mean that one has exhausted love, but only that one has hit the bottom of one's egotism and selfishness.

A crisis should never mean "I love you no more," but "Now i begin to love you in a different way."

Love is not an illusion; the illusion is to believe that one's love will never undergo a crisis.

The apparent emptiness comes, not from the other partner, but from the nature of life itself.

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