up women in beauty and strength as they live out their vocations as wives, mothers, or single women within the kingdom.
2. Headship is about deliverance, not domination.
As husbands, our role as head of the household is to deliver our wives over to Christ in beauty and perfection, not to rule over them. This applies in similar ways to single men as well as those in the priesthood and religious life. True headship respects and appreciates the gifts and godliness of others and what they have to offer to our families and the Church. How we treat others reveals the principles of the kingdom and draws the family of God together in love. Being a servant leader is truly an awesome responsibility for men.
3. Our love should be sacrificial, not selfish.
Many men claim that they would die for their wives, yet they refuse to help with the chores or the children. Real love puts the women in our lives in an exalted place and calls us to lay down our comforts, our needs, our dreams, and our very lives for their betterment. What sort of witnesses are we if we fail to yield ourselves for the sake of the ones we love the most?
4. “Cherish” is the watchword of a man’s every action.
Husbands should be helplessly and hopelessly in love with our wives, holding every moment of our marriages as sacred and beautiful. Loving our wives should be a delight and our deepest desire. For the pastor or the religious or lay leader, our love for others, especially women, should reflect God’s love for them, and not our selfish wants and needs. The key is recognizing the unique dignity of each person who is a part of our lives.
5. We are to leave the safety of childhood in order to assume our role as godly men.
In marriage, we leave our former life and join to our wife, becoming one in body and spirit. We commit exclusively to our wife, forsaking all others in order to serve and love her, witnessing to the sacrificial and complete love of Christ in all we say and do. All Catholic men, as well, should strive to be the best versions of ourselves as we move from dependence and childhood into the maturity of our adult vocation as husband, priest, religious, or single layperson.
This Week’s Call to Action
As we know all too well, the truth is most marriages are a far cry from the sacrificial example Paul describes in Ephesians 5. For the husband, this week, make an extra effort to be the man your wife needs you to be. Study what it really means to love your wife as Christ loves the Church. If you are single, take time to pray over these lessons and reflect on the vocation to marriage and fatherhood. Whether God is calling you to this vocation or to religious or single life, it is important to recognize and celebrate the deep beauty and holiness of marriage as God intended it. In all you do, let your actions witness to the same selfless love that Jesus showed to every person as you live out your vocation within the family of faith.
Marriage and manhood are about mutual respect, self-sacrifice, and walking hand in hand with those we love toward eternity every single day. Talk to Jesus and ask him what he wants from you with regard to your marriage or your life of dedication to him. Let the sacraments, particularly confession and the Eucharist, help strengthen you to love your family and your family of faith as Christ loves the Church. Dig deep into God’s Word to guide you. Seek brothers who will hold you accountable for your conduct and guide you in your duties as a witness to the gospel to all those in your life.
Part of the responsibility of husbands is to witness the love of Christ to the world in how we protect, serve, and support our wives. As we live out our marriage vows in fidelity, we stand together with our spouses and demonstrate the kind of sacrificial love that characterizes our Catholic faith. For those in religious and single life, the call to live pure and holy in the world as servant leaders is a vital part of our unity as members of the Body of Christ.
Sunday
This week you will focus on the beauty of marriage, the responsibility of true headship, and the connection between marriage and Christ’s love for his Church. As you reflect and pray, keep in mind that headship involves mutual submission, deliverance, sacrifice, and deep love. In marriage you leave your old life behind and cling to your wife in mutual love and submission. Understanding this, we will also consider the deeper implications of marriage in the larger picture of what it means to be Church. Those who are unmarried can apply these lessons to their individual vocations as well. Remember that as men you are called to be servant leaders, witnesses to the awesome sacrificial love that revealed itself in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
This Sunday at Mass reflect on the way the Church celebrates the spiritual rebirth we have received through the cross. The Eucharist points forward to the great Wedding Feast when the Bride of Christ, the Church, will be united forever with Christ her Bridegroom. If you keep a journal, reflect and write today about how the readings, the prayers, and the celebration of the Eucharist reflect our great call to become the pure and spotless Bride of Christ. Listen for the ways in which the Lord is speaking to you about your marriage or single vocation, encouraging you to pour yourselves into the lives of your loved ones, as Christ poured out his life for his Church.
Questions for reflection
If you are a husband, do you strive to love your wife the way Christ loves the Church? How can you do this with more intention, starting today? How can you and your wife work together to make your marriage a living witness to the world?
If you are currently single or called to a single life, do you live out your vocation in such a way that you reflect the sacrificial love of Christ who gave himself up for the world? What practical steps can you take to become a man truly dedicated to serving God with your whole heart?
Praying with Scripture
“Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them” (Col 3:19).
Monday
Relationships Are about Mutual Submission
Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” So out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:18–25
God created man and woman to be co-equal partners in the economy of his creation. In chapter 2 of Genesis, we see Adam giving names to the animals, which means he has dominion over them and is superior to them. Only the woman, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh, is equal in mind, body, and soul. In becoming one flesh, man and woman have the power to create new human life. Man and woman each have dignity and a role that is divinely assigned. They are equal in stature and mutual in submission. Each is to yield to the other: man subordinating his needs in order to protect and care for his wife, and woman accepting her role as helper to be the complementary partner to her husband.
Sadly, the equality and mutual submission between man and woman was wounded in the Fall. Now, each seeks to dominate and rule over the other. Yet in Christ that original dignity has been healed and restored. This means that we, as men, have the awesome privilege and responsibility of raising up the dignity of men and women and marriage by the way we witness to these powerful truths in our lives. Are we willing to yield to God’s will in putting the needs of our wives, our congregations, our Christian brothers and sisters, and