Husband and wife: a great mystery

It is not good for the man to be alone. God makes the woman from the man's side. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and the two become one flesh.

Paul quotes these words about marriage and adds: this is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Marriage thus becomes a picture of the way Christ gives himself to people. It connects with the prophets, who called God the bridegroom of Israel, with Jesus, who called himself the bridegroom, and with the end of the Bible, the marriage of the Lamb. Church fathers saw another parallel: as the woman came from the side of the sleeping Adam, so the church came from the opened side of Christ.