Self-gift

John Paul II ( Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body , p. 168-9 ) notes that parents and children have a natural fleshly unity with one another. In marriage, by contrast, the one-flesh relationship is chosen: This “reciprocal choice . . . establishes the conjugal covenant between the persons, who become ‘one flesh’ only based on this choice.” Thus their union “carries within itself a particular awareness of the meaning of the body in the reciprocal self-gift of the persons.”

Marriage thus becomes the supreme created exemplar of free self-gift. And, it’s for this reason that marriage is the key image of the Lord’s covenant with His people – because the covenant is grounded on a choice, an election, and because of that choice God gives Himself to His Bride.