Sacred Marriage

To approach the subject at all, a context is needed with boundaries. A traditional marriage, one man one woman monogamously committed is the context in which a Sacred Marriage can emerge. There are unions outside of this context; these unions are outside of the discussion here undertaken, without prejudice or comment, they simply compose a different subject area. While there are various aspects of a Sacred Marriage, the center of gravity of the marriage is not in sex. Certainly sex is an aspect but not the main aspect. I will take for a commentary on what a Sacred Marriage might be, an answer provided by Jacob Needleman in an interview at the New School Commonweal, by Michael Lerner, August 2, 2015. His answer to the question ” What is this thing called love?” was (paraphrased, and radically abbreviated) ‘love is shown in the marriage as each acknowledging, respecting, and supporting the other’s spiritual path’. Attempting to extend that commentary, in a Sacred Marriage Love is the center of gravity and that Love is shown in each supporting the other to actualize his/her highest spiritual destiny. The spiritual paths need not be the same but certainly they will corroborate one another, intertwine, blend and add mutual support. The love is the more intense if the spiritual path is the same path.

A look at “Love” from The Inner Journey, Views from the Christian Tradition, The Battle For Person in the Heart, James and Myfanway Moran.

“Love never compels or seduces. It is humble. That is its beauty and its risk. Man’s real greatness lies in the fact that his personhood was created to know this beauty and this risk. By receiving the divine life as a gift, and using its energies in his existence, man becomes God’s intimate friend and co-worker in the creation.

“Love, then, is no mere subjective emotion or feeling; no mere objective behavior or good deed. It is the very power, or driving force, of the human personhood. It is an energy with ontological reality and great creative force. It is nothing less than the spark of the divine fire which was meant to grow into a raging flame, provided that man uses it according to its true nature, to express the creativity and freedom of love. By ”spending” this energy in that fashion, the personhood of a human being can grow from the image of God, or potentiality for divinization, into the likeness of God, or actuality of divinization. Each unique life would then express its fire differently, yet all lives would be drawn together into its communal feast and celebration. And the fire would dwell in spirit, soul, and body, and reach out to the rest of creation, releasing its potentiality to participate in the Kingdom. The Kingdom which begins in the Holy Trinity would extend, through man’s free act of loving, to all that exists.”

The Inner Journey, Views from the Christian Tradition

Posts relating to this subject ‘ Sacred Marriage’ are varied and the unavoidable subject of sex is treated in several posts; it would be a mistake to infer that such is top most in the formation of the significant questions for a Sacred Marriage.

Sex and Marriage, Malcolm Muggerige