new church life: september/october 2017
treasure hidden in a field, or a pearl of great price, or a seed from which the
tree of life will grow. And, as we are told, conjugial love will be raised up
anew in the New Church--not just the New Church in the world, but in each
person who is made spiritual through the Word. (See Conjugial Love 81e)
The connection between conjugial love and the life of religion is made
explicit in this passage: “Every advance and every step from religion and into
religion is also an advance and step from the conjugial and into the conjugial
that belongs to and is peculiar to the Christian person.” (Conjugial Love 80)
Religion enters into every aspect of life, and the life of religion is to do
good. Marriage provides the most concentrated and permanent setting for this,
that is, for the practice of religion. It is an on-going, lifelong endeavor. It
requires the husband and wife to cooperate with each other in caring for their
children and the various other uses of life, and it requires each of them as
individuals to cooperate with the Lord in their own regeneration.
In this way their marriage is strengthened and grows, and together they
“step from the conjugial and into the conjugial” and “from religion and into
religion.” And eventually, as one angel, into the life of heaven.
(WEO)
‘what unites us is stronger than what divides us’
Brave words. Nice sound bite for politicians and others trying to smooth
things over in a country that appears to be coming apart at the seams. In the
political realm it may just be wishful thinking, but there is one area of life in
which it is essential for there to be a uniting force that can heal any divisions
that occur: namely, marriage.
Inevitably, since no two people are exactly alike, there will be differences
that tend to push a husband and wife apart. And these will be exacerbated by
the “love of dominion” and other selfish desires lodged in our natural heredity.
But there are also shared interests that join a husband and wife together;
and these “similarities” (or “simil itudes” in older translations of the Writings)
are very important in overcoming the forces that would divide them. There are
a number of these uniting similarities, but one stands out above all: religion. A
shared religious conviction forms a deep bond that helps a marriage weather
many storms.
Even those (similar qualities) that are further apart can in time be joined by
various means, especially by a couple’s accommodations to one another’s wishes,
by their performance of mutual duties, by their courteous treatment of each other,
by their refraining from things unchaste, by their joint love of little children and
care for their children; but above all, by their conformity in matters connected with
the church. For through matters connected with the church a joining of distant
similarities is achieved inwardly, and only outwardly through other means.
(Conjugial Love 228, italics added)
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