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RedSoxFan
Guest
A simple question. Is it a sin to love your married spouse as much as God? Not more than, mind you, as much as. Thanks!
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Seeks_God
Guest
In a word? Yes!
But living with fidelity to your spouse is one expression of your faith and love to God. In the Vocation of marriage we are supposed to love our spouse more than anything, anyone, any idea EXCPET God.
What do you do when Your spouse is in direct opposition to God? Jesus even explains in the Bible that devotion to him will even split families, so from that lesson we are taught that we are to love God completely. Because we love God completely, this means that we are to love our spouse as much as possible, and sometimes that means setting the example by loving God most.
I’m not sure if I’m right, but this is what I gather from reading the Bible and the CCC…
Hope it helps,
SG
But living with fidelity to your spouse is one expression of your faith and love to God. In the Vocation of marriage we are supposed to love our spouse more than anything, anyone, any idea EXCPET God.
What do you do when Your spouse is in direct opposition to God? Jesus even explains in the Bible that devotion to him will even split families, so from that lesson we are taught that we are to love God completely. Because we love God completely, this means that we are to love our spouse as much as possible, and sometimes that means setting the example by loving God most.
I’m not sure if I’m right, but this is what I gather from reading the Bible and the CCC…
Hope it helps,
SG
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dylanschrader
Guest
Yes, it is a sin because there are different types of love that we ought to have.
We have to love God in a qualitatively different way from everyone and everything else. Why? We ought to love God for his own sake, while we ought to love everyone and everything else for the sake of God.
What if you loved ice cream as much as your spouse? There’s definitely something wrong with that because your love of your spouse should be a very different type of love. In the same way, we must love God above all things because of who he is in himself.
Put another way, to love is to will the good. God is Goodness itself. He is infinitely good while everything else shares in his goodness. How could you love a share of God’s goodness without first loving his goodness? That would not be love at all.
We have to love God in a qualitatively different way from everyone and everything else. Why? We ought to love God for his own sake, while we ought to love everyone and everything else for the sake of God.
What if you loved ice cream as much as your spouse? There’s definitely something wrong with that because your love of your spouse should be a very different type of love. In the same way, we must love God above all things because of who he is in himself.
Put another way, to love is to will the good. God is Goodness itself. He is infinitely good while everything else shares in his goodness. How could you love a share of God’s goodness without first loving his goodness? That would not be love at all.
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mdgspencer
Guest
I’m not sure what you mean about loving your spouse. If you take the money you would have given to the Church and use it for an operation on your spouse, that would be all-right. But if love would mean joining in evil-doing, then it would be better to offend your spouse than to offend God.
I suspect that this is a problem many people face. Does a wife support her husband when it comes to his business if he bilks his customers? Does she lovingly accept her husband’s watching depraved television programs? I’m afraid that there are spouses that go both ways.
I suspect that this is a problem many people face. Does a wife support her husband when it comes to his business if he bilks his customers? Does she lovingly accept her husband’s watching depraved television programs? I’m afraid that there are spouses that go both ways.
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Della
Guest
May I ask if you are a newlywed or about to get married? I ask because you may be a bit overwhelmed by your feelings at this time in your life.
Love is not the same thing as feelings, especially not love for God. We adore God because he deserves to be adored. We love our spouses as Christ loved the Church–in a sacrificial way.
And we realize that our (and our spouses) ultimate good is not each other, but God. If you have these priorities in mind, you won’t go wrong in your relationship with God or your spouse.
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valient_Lucy
Guest
That’s a very good point. Our culture has taught us to confuse love with feelings, which are not love.
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ltbpoe43
Guest
I agree with many posters here and say it is actually impossible to do so.
Your spouse is enjoined to you as an earthly gift and due all your heartfelt love, respect, admiration, and caring you can give. We can be overwhelmed by these feelings of romantic love whether we have been married newly or for many years.
Your Lord is enjoined to you spiritually and as a heavenly gift through the Eucharist and is due your spiritual love and caring for your soul and adherence to his words so that you live a good life.
These things are not in conflict with each other, but are complimentary to each other. But they are different perspectives and thus it is impossible to love spouse and God equally.
Your spouse is enjoined to you as an earthly gift and due all your heartfelt love, respect, admiration, and caring you can give. We can be overwhelmed by these feelings of romantic love whether we have been married newly or for many years.
Your Lord is enjoined to you spiritually and as a heavenly gift through the Eucharist and is due your spiritual love and caring for your soul and adherence to his words so that you live a good life.
These things are not in conflict with each other, but are complimentary to each other. But they are different perspectives and thus it is impossible to love spouse and God equally.
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rwoehmke
Guest
It has been said that you cannot love God, whom you cannot see, unless you first love those that you can see. That’s a slight misquote, but its as close as I can come to it. As Della explained love is not a feeling, it is an action, an act of the will. If you indeed loved someone else more than God you would willingly let them lead you into evil should they be so inclined. I hope that that is not a problem for you.
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bear06
Guest
I was just thinking about something similar the other day. I, from time to time, actually get sad at the thought that my relationship with my husband won’t be the same in heaven (if I’m lucky enough to ever get there).
Of course then I snap out of it and realize that heaven will be a million times better even though it’s hard to believe.
Of course then I snap out of it and realize that heaven will be a million times better even though it’s hard to believe.
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RedSoxFan
Guest
Thank You everyone for helping me out. I already knew how I felt, but had trouble putting it eloquently into words so that the misses (married in Sept.06) would understand and not be hurt. Michelle Arnold’s explanation (the one she read) helped her through this. It also provided me with an aspect that I had not considered, but perhaps my wife had. Mostly though, the thoughts posted here confirmed my original thoughts and help me out greatly. Thanks!
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havemercy
Guest
Keeping in mind that a husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the Church and that a wife is to subject herself to the love of her husband as the Church does in Christ, the answer is “yes”.
Spousal love seems tantamount to (or at least as significant as)…Well, spousal love, in the Divine and Eternal sense. That is why marriage isn’t merely and institution: it is a sacrament. It makes visible (married life) the invisible (the marriage of Christ and His Church), in a concrete and real way. The vocation of a married person is to love their spouse with their whole self. This is following God’s law, and is of no obstruction to loving God above all things, given of course that married people are equally yoked in their faith.
I wish I could remember Fulton Sheen’s exact words (pray for his Canonization!), but he said that the love of spouses should be Jesus Christ. That is to say that when a husband and wife refer to their love as “our love”, that love is Jesus Christ. In this way, they emulate the Holy Family, and live out a Holy Marriage.
I hope this scattered post is of some help to you.
Pax et bonum,
Spousal love seems tantamount to (or at least as significant as)…Well, spousal love, in the Divine and Eternal sense. That is why marriage isn’t merely and institution: it is a sacrament. It makes visible (married life) the invisible (the marriage of Christ and His Church), in a concrete and real way. The vocation of a married person is to love their spouse with their whole self. This is following God’s law, and is of no obstruction to loving God above all things, given of course that married people are equally yoked in their faith.
I wish I could remember Fulton Sheen’s exact words (pray for his Canonization!), but he said that the love of spouses should be Jesus Christ. That is to say that when a husband and wife refer to their love as “our love”, that love is Jesus Christ. In this way, they emulate the Holy Family, and live out a Holy Marriage.
I hope this scattered post is of some help to you.
Pax et bonum,
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CatholicMC
Guest
yes, and, ultimately impossible even though it may seem otherwise.
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m134e5
Guest
Yes- that is a mortal sin against the first commandment. They are not God. Couples who think this way do not last…and are a bad example of a Catholic couple. They are the brides who, when they get married, spend hours and hours pouring over bridal magazines, and treat the pre-cana classes like they are some sort of chore. They are the grooms who don’t care much about the wedding ceremony- who let the bride do all the planning and everything, come up with a poem or something to keep her happy, but focus their attention on everything but the sacrament they are receiving.
Marriage is a holy thing. It is a sacrament, instituted by Christ himself. It can be abused, and is commonly abused- even by Catholics who think they are devout. They abuse it by thinking of their spouse and their relationship more than God, and failing to recognize that marriage doesn’t mean you totally abandon everything around you and suddenly only have room for one other person in your life. If you put them equal to God, how much lower than do you put everyone else?
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Clovis
Guest
I wouldn’t think so, it is great that you love your spouse so much. By saying you love God as much, it is like saying my life and my wife are my two favorite things.
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havemercy
Guest
I’m making a major correction here: the answer is NOT yes in the more obvious sense of putting one’s spouse in God’s place. One ought to love their spouse for God and in God – not as if they were God. This means that spouses should one another for the sake of one another (their eternal salvation), and thus for God’s sake.
That was a close one! (Coffee next time, I promise.)
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