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Carmen-José Alejos
School of Theology
University of Navarra

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When thinking of marriage, it is very helpful to clarify that consent is not directed towards the other partner, but towards the founding of a union with that partner. The conjugal union is the object of marital consent. This means that the union does not belong to the husband or the wife - it is common property. It belongs essentially to "us" - to the two parties who constitute it. They are no longer two people, because they have become one flesh. The personal pronoun "we" expresses the ownership of that union. It is from this union that the fruits of marriage are generated: "our children", "our life", "our home", "our family".

God who is love, who created human beings through love, has called them to love. God created man and woman and called them in marriage to an intimate communion of life and love.

Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 337.

Commentary

The essential point about marriage is the union of love between the husband and wife. When a man and a woman truly love each other - if we understand love in the Christian sense, not as the artificial product which is often sold to us - then the family that is created is based on love. The couple love each other, parents love their children, children love their parents, and brothers and sisters love each other. This kind of family is truly united. In a family like this, which many people of my generation have experienced, it is quite natural for the children to recognize God's love when He asks them to devote their lives to Him. It is natural for them to entrust themselves to Him, and their parents receive their children's vocation as a great gift of God, because that is really what a vocation is - a gift.