Let wives be subject to their husbands; An examination of authority in Christian Marriage

In late July, I mentioned that Christendom College has placed audio podcasts online, especially for my specific interest in their Annual Summer Institute. My wife and I just finished listening to Mary Stanford speak about the differences of women and men associated with Ephesians 5:

21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
24 As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
27 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.
28 Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, as Christ does the church,
30 because we are members of his body.
31 "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
32 This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church;
33 however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Simply stated, Mary's presentation is the best I have heard on this subject. She not only covered the redeeming qualities that Jesus brought in to marriage, but she also clearly addressed the common misconceptions associated with this particular part of St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians. She does this through her obvious thorough study of the subject and gains additional insight from Edith Stein and Pope John Paul II's Familiaris Consortio, just to mention a few resources. I highly recommend this presentation.

I have placed a link to the podcast below as described on the Christendom College website. I would also encourage you to see my earlier post so that you can download all of Christendom College's podcasts. Accessing the podcasts via iTunes means gaining access to all of the latest content, including the 19th annual Summer Institute held on July 12th, 2008.

Authority in Marriage
Christendom College’s 18th Annual Summer Institute on Marriage and the Family was held at its Front Royal, Virginia campus on July 21.

Acclaimed professor of John Paul II’s Theology of the Body, Mary Stanford discussed authority in marriage. She said that our modern culture has a misconception of what marriage is.

An "ecclesia domestica" in brief

Since we will often make mention of our "ecclesia domestica", we thought it worthwhile to explain the term and how it applies to our family life. Although unknown to many Christians, the family has been described as the ecclesia domestica since the early times of the Church. Translated from latin, it means the "domestic church". It's a call to make our homes a church.

The roots of the ecclesia domestica in Sacred Scripture can be found in Ephesians 5:21-33. There, Saint Paul describes the spousal love between a husband and wife as being intrinsicly related to the spousal love of Christ and His Church. The same unifying and fruitful love that knits the mystical body of Christ together can be found in each and every family.

Several writings have been published which address the relationship mentioned above. In fact, this long-time Christian teaching has been reaffirmed quite significantly in recent times. Pope John Paul I during an ad limina visit with U.S. Bishops in 1978, wrote "Through family prayer, the ecclesia domestica becomes an effective reality and leads to the transformation of the world." In 1981, Pope John Paul II in "Familiaris Consortio" repeatedly mentions the domestic church and later in 1995, in "Evangelium vitae", identified the importance of the domestic church as the "sanctuary of life".

It's worth reading those references to begin an understanding of the depth of the domestic church and its role in the modern world.