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GENERAL AUDIENCE OF 25 AUGUST [1982]
During the general audience at St Peter's Square on Wednesday
evening, 25 August, the Holy Father continued his catechesis on the
Letter to the Ephesians.
1. In the preceding reflections on the Letter to the Ephesians
(5:21-33), we drew attention especially to the analogy of the
relationship which exists between Christ and the Church, and of that
which exists between husband and wife united by the bond of marriage.
Before undertaking the analysis of the further passages of the text in
question, we must note that within the range of the fundamental Pauline
analogy: Christ and the Church, on the one hand, and man and woman as
spouses on the other, there is a supplementary analogy: the analogy of
the head and of the body. This analogy confers a chiefly ecclesiological
significance on the statement we analyzed: the Church as such is formed
by Christ; it is constituted by him in its essential part, as the body
is by the head. The union of the body with the head is above all of an
organic nature. To put it simply, it is the somatic union of the human
organism. The biological union is founded directly on this organic
union, inasmuch as it can be said that the body lives by the head (even
if at the same time, though in a different way, the head lives by the
body). Besides, in the case of man, the psychic union, understood in its
integrity, and the integral unity of the human person is also founded on
this organic union.
Eschatological perspective
2. As already stated (at least in the passage analyzed), the author
of the Letter to the Ephesians has introduced the supplementary analogy
of the head and the body within the limits of the analogy of marriage.
He even seems to have conceived the first analogy, "head-body," in a
more central manner from the point of view of the truth about Christ and
the Church proclaimed by him. However, one must equally affirm that he
has not placed it alongside or outside of the analogy of marriage as a
conjugal bond—quite
the contrary. In the whole text of the Letter to the Ephesians
(5:21-33), especially in the first part with which we are dealing
(5:22-23), the author speaks as if in marriage also the husband is "head
of the wife," and the wife "the body of the husband," as if the married
couple formed one organic union. This can find its basis in the text of
Genesis which speaks of one flesh (Gn 2:24), or in that same text to
which the author of the Letter to the Ephesians will shortly refer in
the context of this great analogy. Nevertheless, the text of Genesis
makes clear that the man and the woman are two distinct personal
subjects who knowingly decide on their conjugal union, defined by that
ancient text with the words "one flesh." This is equally clear also in
the Letter to the Ephesians. The author uses a twofold analogy:
head-body, husband-wife, for the purpose of illustrating clearly the
nature of the union between Christ and the Church. In a certain sense,
especially in the first part of the Letter to the Ephesians 5:22-23, the
ecclesiological dimension seems decisive and dominant.
Particular relationship
3. "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the
husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the Church, his
body, and is himself its Savior. As the Church is subject to Christ, so
let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands. Husbands,
love your wives, as Christ loved the Church, and gave himself up for
her..." (Eph 5:22-25). This supplementary analogy "head-body" indicates
that within the limits of the entire passage of the Letter to the
Ephesians 5:21-33, we are dealing with two distinct subjects. In virtue
of a particular reciprocal relationship, in a certain sense they become
a single subject. The head, together with the body, constitutes a
subject (in the physical and metaphysical sense), an organism, a human
person, a being. There is no doubt that Christ is a subject different
from the Church. However, in virtue of a particular relationship, he is
united with her, as in an organic union of head and body. The Church is
so strongly, so essentially herself in virtue of a mystical union with
Christ. Is it possible to say the same thing of the spouses, of the man
and the woman united by the marriage bond? If the author of the Letter
to the Ephesians sees also in marriage the analogy of the union of head
and body, this analogy in a certain sense seems to apply to marriage in
consideration of the union which Christ constitutes with the Church, and
the Church with Christ. Therefore, the analogy regards, above all,
marriage itself as that union through which "the two become one flesh"
(Eph 5:31; cf. Gn 2:24).
Bi-subjectivity
4. This analogy, however, does not blur the individuality of the
subjects: that of the husband and that of the wife, that is, the
essential bi-subjectivity which is at the basis of the image of "one
single body." Rather, the essential bi-subjectivity of the husband and
wife in marriage, which makes of them in a certain sense "one single
body," passes within the limits of the whole text we are examining (Eph
5:21-33) to the image of Church-Body united with Christ as head. This is
seen especially in this text where the author describes the relationship
of Christ to the Church precisely by means of the image of the
relationship of the husband to the wife. In this description the
Church-Body of Christ appears clearly as the second subject of the
spousal union to which the first subject, Christ, manifests the love
with which he has loved her by giving himself for her. That love is an
image and above all a model of the love which the husband should show to
his wife in marriage, when the two are subject to each other "out of
reverence for Christ."
Two become one flesh
5. We read: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church
and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed
her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the
Church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such
thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands
should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves
himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and
cherishes it, as Christ does the Church, because we are members of his
body. 'For this reason a man should leave his father and mother and be
joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'" (Eph 5:25-31).
Aim is sanctification
6. It is easy to perceive that in this part of the text of the Letter
to the Ephesians (5:21-33), bi-subjectivity clearly dominates. It is
manifested both in the relationship Christ-Church, and also in the
relationship husband-wife. This does not mean to say that the image of a
single subject disappears: the image of "a single body." It is preserved
also in the passage of our text, and in a certain sense it is better
explained there. This will be seen more clearly when we submit the
above-quoted passage to a detailed analysis. Thus the author of the
Letter to the Ephesians speaks of the love of Christ for the Church by
explaining the way in which that love is expressed, and by presenting at
the same time both that love and its expressions as a model which the
husband should follow in regard to his wife. The love of Christ for the
Church has essentially her sanctification as its scope. "Christ loved
the Church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her"
(5:25-26). Baptism is a principle of this sanctification. Baptism is the
first and essential fruit of Christ's giving himself for the Church. In
this text baptism is not called by its own proper name, but is defined
as purification "by the washing of water with the word" (5:26). This
washing, with the power that derives from the redemptive giving of
himself by Christ for the Church, brings about the fundamental
purification through which Christ's love for the Church acquires a
spousal character, in the eyes of the author of the letter.
7. It is known that the sacrament of baptism is received by an
individual subject in the Church. However, beyond the individual subject
of baptism the author of the letter sees the whole Church. The spousal
love of Christ is applied to her, the Church, every time that a single
person receives in her the fundamental purification by means of baptism.
Whoever receives baptism becomes—by
the virtue of the redemptive love of Christ—at
the same time a participant in his spousal love for the Church. In our
text "the washing of water with the word" is an expression of the
spousal love in the sense that it prepares the Bride (Church) for the
Bridegroom. It makes the Church the spouse of Christ, I would say, in
actu primo. Some biblical scholars observe that in this text, the
washing with water recalls the ritual ablution which preceded the
wedding—something
which constituted an important religious rite also among the Greeks.
Ecclesiological dimension
8. As the sacrament of baptism, "the washing of water with the word"
(Eph 5:26) renders the Church a spouse not only in actu primo but
also in the more distant perspective, in the eschatological perspective.
This opens up before us when we read in the Letter to the Ephesians that
"the washing of water" serves, on the part of the groom "to present the
Church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
that she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph 5:27). The expression
"to present to himself" seems to indicate that moment of the wedding in
which the bride is led to the groom, already clothed in the bridal dress
and adorned for the wedding. The text quoted indicates that the
Christ-spouse himself takes care to adorn the spouse-Church. He is
concerned that she should be beautiful with the beauty of grace,
beautiful by virtue of the gift of salvation in its fullness, already
granted from the moment of the sacrament of baptism. But baptism is only
the beginning from which the figure of the glorious Church will emerge
(as we read in the text), as a definitive fruit of the redemptive and
spousal love, only with the final coming of Christ (parousia).
We see how profoundly the author of the Letter to the Ephesians examines
the sacramental reality, proclaiming its grand analogy. Both the union
of Christ with the Church, and the conjugal union of man and woman in
marriage are illumined in this way by a particular supernatural light.
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