Matrimony: An Image of the Trinity

We profess our faith in the Triune God—three Persons in one God. This truth was revealed to us by Jesus Christ: that there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, yet there is only one God. St. Augustine used the image of love in one of his explanations of the Trinity: the Father is the Lover, the Son is the Beloved, and the Holy Spirit is the Love exchanged between the Father and the Son.

Because of this divine exchange of love within the Trinity, there is an outpouring that cannot be contained—thus, creation came into being: the sun, moon, stars, planets, seas, rivers, mountains, plants, trees, animals, and we, human beings. It is through the outpouring of God's love that we were created. St. Maximilian Kolbe affirms this by saying, “Only love creates.”

“Only love creates.”

—St. Maximilian M. Kolbe

The Sacrament of Matrimony is an image of the Trinity. Before the rite of Matrimony, the man and the woman are two individuals. But after receiving the sacrament, they become one. They remain distinct as man and woman, but they are united as one. In fact, they become three, as God is at the center of their union—God, husband, and wife—yet they are one. It is the love between the man and the woman, with God at the center, that creates. From that love comes offspring. It is God who gives life, but through the cooperation of husband and wife, new life is brought forth—a child is born.

It is the love between the man and the woman, with God at the center, that creates.

We are all products of the love between our parents, united in God. When God is no longer the center of the relationship between husband and wife, the relationship begins to fall apart.

Let us continue to pray for married couples and families—that God may always remain at the center of their lives, and that the sanctity of Marriage and the sanctity of life may be upheld. Amen.