By Fr. Spyridon Skoutis
Divorce is the blatant proof that someone got married for the wrong reasons.
Divorce means that two people were not able to love each other because both decided to keep a distance from one another, without ever becoming one, rather than joining two lives together When two people focus on “I” rather than “we”, then this marriage is doomed to fail.
One got married because one was aiming at something material rather than truly loving that person. When the person loses that thing that keeps fascinating the other, then the marriage has already failed. This is because they follow a common life, but both stimulate their egocentricity. Many people want to be together because one wants to share his life with another while they want to have fun. However, one is terrified when one thinks that the other can be his whole life. Most people are afraid of assuming responsibility, offering or sacrificing themselves, because you must be less egocentric, and most people refuse to do so.
I do not marry in order to make family, give birth to children, make a fortune, live a good life. I do not know if anything of those things will ever happen, nor am I interested in that at all.
We get marry and we have a rosy outlook on life always makes us feel better. However, we forget that love is being severely tested every under harsh conditions.
What kind of love do you have in marriage? Your struggles and the trials will prove how strong is your love during this common journey. It does not matter whether it’s a win or a defeat.We have to pay attention to the substance. Some people thought that the Crucifixion of Christ was a defeat. However, the glorious Resurrection, which followed after the Crucifixion, proved them wrong.
We should not be afraid of the struggles or the trials for we have someone who can heal them. We have by our side the Great Archiereus and, therefore, there is nothing to be afraid of.
Happiness resides in Jesus Christ. Whenever you cannot find Jesus Christ, happiness is forever absent. In the Mystery of marriage, the couple does not get an “invisible blessing,” but serves to unite a woman and a man in eternal union and love before God. This relationship is no longer a matter of pleasure and gratification. It is not a common life in order to have fun. It is a journey with Jesus as the helmsman and the destination of the Kingdom of Heaven.
We will follow the same path together, having Jesus by our side, whatever happens. We will be together or better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, with many children, without children, in war, in joys, in sorrows.
A good marriage is not the one with children, grandchildren and property. The success of marriage does not lie in social prestige but in spiritual fulfilment. Successful marriage is when the couple fought for this union, and was blessed to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Many people will get married in the church, but few of them will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
*The article was originally published in Greek in ikivotos.gr
