The Liturgy of the Word opens this week with the assuring statement: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.” A partner, a helpmate, a co-creator, God gives Adam a spouse from his side.

At the core of our being, we all long for community. This longing reaches its highest pitch in the Sacrament of Matrimony. In this sacrament, a man and woman, supported by their community, build a home together. They are open to be co-creators with God in bringing children into the world.

Throughout my young adult life, I have studied this idea of matrimony and dug around its theological concepts. The best teacher in understanding matrimony is the sacrament itself.

Marriage has taught me many lessons, one being humility. I need to constantly return to humility to conform my wants and desires for the good of my house. My wife and children need a husband and father who can model love as Christ modeled it for his Church. I do not always get it right. So I have to lean on the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist to sustain me. They renew me and bring me back to Christ. He is at the center of it all. To walk closely with God in this way, we can utter the psalmist’s words: “Blessed are you who fear the LORD, who walk in his ways! For you shall eat the fruit of your handiwork. Blessed shall you be, and favored.”

This image of creating Adam’s helpmate is beautiful: “While he was asleep, he took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built up into a woman the rib that he had taken from the man.” We have to look to the Cross to see the fulfillment of this imagery. From the side of Christ, he gushed forth blood and water. Blood and water are images of Baptism and Eucharist. From his side, the Church is born! Jesus is our life source.

Every man must love his wife as Christ has loved the Church. Christ enters into perfect humility on the Cross to love his bride, the Church, to the end. We must strive each day to love our families and domestic Church in imitation of him. Together, we run to eternal life.