God’s Eternal Plan
Eph 1:3-10 “…He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ…according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”
Christ Appeals to the Beginning
Mt 19:3-8 “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator created them male and female and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and unite with his wife, and the two will be one flesh’? So it is that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined let man not separate.” They objected, “Why then did Moses order to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus answered, “Because of the hardness of your heart Moses allowed you to divorce you wives, but from the beginning it was not so.”
Gen 1:27-28 “God created man in his image; in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply…’”
Gen 2:18 “It is not good that the man should be alone; I want to make him a helper similar to himself.”
Gen 2:23 “This time she is flesh from my flesh and bone from my bones”
Gen 2:24 “So it is that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined let no man separate.” (unity and indissolubility of marriage)
Gen 2:25 “Now both were naked, the man and his wife, but they did not feel shame.”
Knowledge and Procreation
Gen 4:1-2 “Adam united himself with Eve his wife, who conceived and gave birth to Cain and said, ‘I have acquired a man from the Lord.’ Then she gave birth also to his brother Abel.”
Christ appeals to the Heart
Mt 5:27-28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you: Whoever looks at a woman to desire her (in a reductive way) has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (man’s call to greatness)
Historical Man and the Fall
Gen 3:1-5 “Now the serpent was more subtle than any other wild creature that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree from of the garden?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’ But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”
Mt 5:17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish but to fulfill.” (fullness of the Law in the Person of Christ)
Redemption of the Body
Mt 22:30 “In the resurrection they take neither wife nor husband, but are like angels in heaven”
Continence for the Kingdom
Mt 19:11-12 “Not all can understand it, but only those to whom it has been granted. For there are eunuchs who were born this way from their mother’s womb; there are some who were made eunuchs by men, and there are others who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone understand this who can.”(Virginity/Celibacy for the Kingdom)
Relation between marriage and virginity
1Cor7:32-35 “I want you to be free from anxieties. The unmarried man is anxious about the affairs of the Lord, how to please the Lord; but the married man is anxious about worldly affairs, how to please his wife, and his interests are divided…”
Struggle and Hope for Redemption in Christ
Rm 8:23 “We ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for…the redemption of our bodies.”
The Sacrament: Covenant and Grace
Eph 5:21-33 “Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, he who is the Savior of his body. And as the Church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be subject to their husbands in everything. And you, husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for her, in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water accompanied by the word, so as to present his Church before himself all glorious, without spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind, but holy and immaculate. In the same way, husbands have the duty to love their wives as their own body, for the one who loves his wife loves himself. No one, in fact, ever hates his own flesh, but he nourishes and cares for it, as Christ does with the Church, because we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and unite with his wife, and the two will form one flesh. This mystery is great; I say this with reference to Christ and the Church. Therefore also you, each one on his part, should love his wife as himself, and the woman should have reverence toward her husband.” (Foundation for both: sacramental marriage and celibacy for the kingdom)
I Cor 6:19-20 “…your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you…you are not your own; you have been bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.”