new church life: september/october 2015
ourselves to act in a friendly way, even
if we don’t especially feel like it, it sets
the stage for the Lord to work within to
restore the love. We cannot change our
feelings, but we can take actions that
allow the Lord to stem the flood of the
hells, so that the genuine love within
can re-emerge. (Conjugial Love 271)
And even if efforts to be a friend do
not save the marriage, they still prepare
the individual for an eventual conjugial
relationship.
Ideally, friendship – as the face
and garment of love truly conjugial –
enriches and brings an inmost joy to
people. Or, as the Heavenly Doctrines
state: “If friendship, love of the married partner, love of children, reigns in
common in any society, then every single thing they think, speak and do is
joyful.” (Spiritual Experiences 2415)
As we strive to become better and more selfless friends, sometimes forcing
ourselves to act against our baser feelings, something precious grows inside.
An opening to the Lord creates a union of souls and a joining of minds – and
that can take place and be felt more and more in our lives.
This is the promise of an inmost friendship (Conjugial Love 180), said in
the Heavenly Doctrines to be the “friendship of friendships,” (Ibid. 334) or
“conjugial friendship, which surpasses all friendship.” (Spiritual Experiences
6110:49)
As we work at becoming a better friend to our spouse, a conjugial
friendship will become a genuine face and garment of that intense and eternal
love which the Lord is giving us. It will promote that deeply formative and
satisfying genuine love in marriage, allowing a couple to grow closer forever.
For they “who so dwell together on earth dwell together as angels after death.”
(Arcana Coelestia 2732)
Indeed, then the joy of dwelling together increases in this world and will
in the next forever. So our marriages will become the source of the deepest and
the most intense happiness that we can ever experience.
This is the promise of love truly conjugial – a precious gift from the Lord
that He is ever offering to us. Amen.
As we work at
becoming a better
friend to our spouse,
a conjugial friendship
will become a genuine
face and garment
of that intense and
eternal love which the
Lord is giving us.
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