Spouses’ responsibilities for each other end at death, “till death do us part.” But their faithfulness lasts forever.
“Through a special Sacrament, he enriches and strengthens those he has already consecrated by Holy Baptism, that they may be faithful to each other for ever and assume all the responsibilities of married life. (The Order of Celebrating Matrimony)”
My wife and I hope for eternal happiness in God alone. That happiness includes eternal faithfulness to each other.
I wonder what eternal faithfulness means.
Heavenly citizens are perfectly just toward each other. They always give what others are due. If they didn’t, heaven would just be more earth. In the perfectly just place called heaven, everyone bears the attributes of faithfulness: fidelity, loyalty, trustworthiness, etc.
The church seems to say that a particular form of faithfulness exists in heaven between people who were spouses. It is something even more perfect than what is already there. And it lasts forever.
It sounds glorious!
Hark! my lover—here he comes
SG (Songs) 2:8–10, 14, 16a; 8:6–7a
springing across the mountains,
leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
gazing through the windows,
peering through the lattices.
My lover speaks; he says to me,
“Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!
“O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
and you are lovely.”
My lover belongs to me and I to him.
He says to me:
“Set me as a seal on your heart,
as a seal on your arm;
For stern as death is love,
relentless as the nether world is devotion;
its flames are a blazing fire.
Deep waters cannot quench love,
nor floods sweep it away.”
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