Genesis and John Marriage and the Eucharist – The Two shall become One

Genesis and John Marriage and the Eucharist – The Two shall become One

When we receive the body of Christ at Communion it is like the marriage act when two separate persons coming together.

Parallels use to explain why sex outside of marriage is wrong – non catholics unable to receive communion in our church.

Gods plan for marriage is that man and woman come together, they cleave together and the two become one.

The two becoming one happens in the marital act between husband and wife. They physically join and the union is real.

We, in the Eucharist, we become one when we receive Christ into our body. 2 Peter says we become partakers in the divine nature. Nowhere on this earth is this more true than when we receive the Eucharist.

The physical union is the sign that man and woman are indeed husband and wife. When people engage in physical union outside of marriage they are lying with their body. Partaking of the Eucharist is the same in that you are performing the act of union but you are lying if you don’t believe what the Catholic Church believes.

In the beginning.
Gen 2:24
Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.
This text is talking about marriage in general.

There is a three step process going on here.
1. A man (and woman) leaves father and mother
2. Cleaves to wife – In other words they have a public commitment before man and God that they are committing their selves to one another for their entire lives
3. And then the two become one flesh.
The two becoming one flesh is after the man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife and not before.

There are no test runs here – like lets live together for a while and see how this works. No, there is no becoming one flesh and joining in the marital embrace physically until there is a commitment in place and when there is a commitment and the two become one flesh the marriage is said to be consummated.

John 19:30 reads
When Jesus had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished"; and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
However in the Douay-Rheims Bible – which is the old English version, it says
Jesus therefore, when he had taken the vinegar, said: It is consummated

So the same language that is used where the two become one flesh, that is the consummation of marriage, is here with Jesus’ death

So keeping that in mind, when we go to Ephesians 5:31-32
V31 - "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."
This is the same language used in Genesis 2:24 but it goes on in
v32 This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church;

So we have the same three step process here where Jesus becoming one with the Church as we have for husband and wife

What do we have:
Step One
Jesus leaving His Father and His mother.
Jesus left His Father to become human. He humbled himself to take on the mantle of humanity.
He left His earthly mother, Mary, because it was time for Him to establish His own household, which the bible tells us is the Church.

Step Two
He cleaved to His wife, His spouse. Jesus gave himself fully and without reservation. And basically we see this in Jesus passion where he cleaved Himself to us when He underwent the agony in the garden of Gethsemane, gave His body up for scourging, when He carried His cross through the streets of Jerusalem and when He allowed Himself to be nailed to the Cross, for us.

Step Three
John 19:30 says: It is consummated.
.

And you have this three step process:
1. Jesus leaves His Father and mother
2. He cleaved to His wife/spouse – the Church
3. And the two become one: It is consummated

In Colossians 1:21-22, it says:
“And you, who once were estranged ..… he (Jesus) has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, …”


Back in Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

Jesus gave himself up for us totally and completely on the Cross. The two were made one.



Source: John Martignoni www.biblechristiansociety.com
From his MP3 talk titled Marriage and the Eucharist
However, the above text was transcribed from an interview he did on a recent Catholic Answers Live radio show.