From Christ’s Side and Joined as One

When Christ was raised upon the cross, nailed there, and died, one of the soldiers came and pierced His side, and blood and water came out. From that blood and water the whole Church was formed. Christ Himself bears witness when He says, “Unless someone is born again from water and Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.” Here the blood signifies the Spirit: we are born through the water of baptism and nourished through the blood. Do you see, then, how we are “from His flesh and from His bones,” born and nourished from that blood and water?

And just as the woman was formed while Adam slept, so the Church was formed from Christ’s side when Christ died.

We ought to love our wife not only because she is our member and received the beginning of her creation from us, but also because God established a law concerning this very thing: “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” Paul read this law to us precisely in order to bind us from every side to this love.

Notice the Apostle’s wisdom. He does not lead us to love our wives only by divine commands or only by human and natural considerations. He alternates between both, so that the person who is more elevated and philosophical may be led to love by heavenly examples, while the weaker person may be led by things below and by nature itself.