Of making many books on marriage there is no end! Some are decent – a handful are outstanding, but I suspect most of us would not think of heading to the Church Fathers for marriage guidance in today’s society.
However, recently I came across a sermon from the 4th century – Chrysostom’s homily on Ephesians 5:22-24 which has some helpful insights for the 21st.
He begins by pointing out that marital harmony between husband and wife is one of the greatest blessings we can experience. ‘Great evils’ are produced if marriages are not harmonious, and great benefits ‘both for the families and states’ if they are. ‘For there is nothing that so welds our life together as the love of man and wife’. If they are in harmony then children are well brought up, domestics are in good order and ‘neighbours, friends and relations, enjoy the fragrance. But if that is not the case then there is great confusion and disorder’.
Gossip is no longer just local – it’s global
The woman was horrified… “You wouldn’t dare do that”. She was a member in the church and had just been …