Church Fathers, Day 205: Asterius of Amasea advises us to remember our marriage vows

Remember your marriage vows

God created marriage, says Asterius of Amasea. A husband and wife are married not just before earthly witnesses, but also before Christ. If you di­vorce your spouse, how will you answer when you face the Judge who was also your Witness?

The Creator was the first bestower of the bride in marriage, since he joined the first human beings in the marriage bond. Thus he gave to all who would come later the inflexible ordinance of the conjugal life, which must be rec­ognized as the law of God. The two who are thus associated with one another are no longer two, but one flesh, so that “What God has joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:6).

If, then, the woman you have lightly divorced takes the book of Genesis and drags you up to the Judge who is both Judge and Witness, tell me, what will you say? How will you repudiate your own vow that you made in the name of God, which Moses, the servant of God, recorded, instead of some cheap notary?

God gave Adam a wife without father and without mother, and for this rea­son, as a guardian he shielded the orphan. But now daughters strongly assert their mothers’ rights against their unfeeling and undutiful husbands. So that from every point of view it is impossible for you to slight your wife with impunity, bound as you are by the ancient laws of God and the modern laws of men.

–Asterius of Amasea, Sermon 5

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .

Have I treated my family today the way God intended me to treat them?

Will it help tomorrow if I remember that family relationships come from God?

CLOSING PRAYER

Father, you made marriage a symbol of Christ’s love for his Church. Let my own relation­ships always bear witness to your love.

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