Marriage from a ‘Christ Perspective’ - Part 1

[This week I would like to start a series of looking at our marriages through the lens of Christ’s words to all of us.]

(Matt. 5: 7) – “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

I have often talked to couples about forgiveness being a free gift of mercy. The offender may have never asked for it or deserved it, but we are called to give it anyway, because it helps us reduce the bitterness that holds our hearts bound. But even more so, we do it because Christ asked us to. Mercy can be very difficult to give at times, but think about all the times we, ourselves, begged for or longed for mercy for a mistake we had made, but never got it. And if we did receive it, do we also remember the gratitude we felt.

Christ especially calls spouses to have mercy on one another. He calls for us not to punish each other for the mistakes we make, but rather to give forgiveness. We may be tempted not to because we are afraid our spouse will perceive trust is again granted, but this is not the case. Trust needs to be rebuilt and is what we owe our spouse when we hurt them. It becomes a charitable act of the will to learn from our mistakes and to make things better out of love for our beloved.

Withholding mercy often just creates more divide between spouses and creates an environment that often discourages the rebuilding of trust. Christ calls us, in this passage from Matthew, to mutually show compassion and mercy toward each other so as to “do unto our spouse, as we would like to have them do unto us.” Also, remember, every time we say the “Our Father” prayer, we ask God to forgive us as we forgive others.

ACTION STEP: This week, seek to give mercy to your spouse any chance you can.