St. Augustine explained the Trinity in this way: the Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, and the love uniting them is the Holy Spirit, who then creates the world. This is exactly what marriage is, the husband loving his wife, the wife loving her husband, and the love between them unite them into one flesh which will create a family. Just as the Trinity is three persons in one God, the married couple is two persons in one flesh. It is precisely in their communion with each other that their marriage will grow deeper and strengthen in love, who is God.
With the grace of the Holy Spirt, the couple will grow in holiness through married life, also by sharing in the mystery of Christ’s cross, which transforms difficulties and sufferings into an offering of love. As they both exchanged their vows they accepted the challenge and aspiration of supporting one another, growing old together, and in this way reflecting God’s own faithfulness. Whenever people look at a husband and wife, they should see the Blessed Trinity and come to know who God is a bit better. This is why the Sacrament of Marriage is so important, married couples are live, walking billboards for how awesome and loving God is. Marriage is the icon of God’s love for us.
This is all important to note because Marriage isn’t an end; but, a beginning. Hopefully, the couple were friends before getting married and they must continue to grow in their friendship with each other. Marriage does not end a couples friendship. They must continue to grow in love for each other and that growth can only occur if they respond to God’s grace through constant acts of love that become ever more frequent, intense, generous, tender and cheerful.
The love they pledge on their wedding day is greater than any emotion, feeling or state of mind, although it may include all of these. It is a deeper love, a lifelong decision of the heart. Even amid unresolved conflicts and confused emotional situations, married couples must reaffirm their love daily through their words and actions. But this takes daily effort and is not possible without praying to the Holy Spirit for an outpouring of his grace, his supernatural strength and his spiritual fire, to confirm, direct and transform a married couples love in every new situation.
Pope Francis has said in a number of talks that every family needs to use three phrases daily: “thank you,” “I’m sorry,” and “please.” Pope Francis says that never letting the sunset before saying these three phrases will help grow and strengthen the love of a family; however, no one can do that without prayer. As couples start the foundation of their new reality as a married couple in Christ, they must continue to build on that foundation through daily prayer and re-committing themselves to love each other every day. Through the exchange of vows a married couple becomes a new living icon of God, who is love. They are then charged to grow in that love every day and to share that love with everyone they meet.