The purpose of marriage; Helping each other get to Heaven?

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I’ve heard a priest say once that the purpose of marriage was to help each other get to Heaven and I thought that was beautiful. Recently I’ve been looking through the Catechism, and some Catholic websites but have not found any quotes saying this. Instead I’ve read that the purpose of marriage was to create children and teach them about God and some other things. I wholeheartedly believe in all of the above, however, does anyone know of any verse in the Bible or Catechism where it specifically says the purpose of marriage is to help our spouses reach Heaven?
 
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I did a quick search and found this.
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Purpose of marriage to get your spouse to Heaven? Family Life
Hi, I’m new here! I joined specifically to ask this question! My husband was raised a Protestant, but he doesn’t really go to church anymore…maybe once every couple of months. I’m Catholic and go to mass regularly. I was talking to my husband today about how the purpose of Holy Matrimony was to get your spouse to Heaven. He said “I bet that’s a Catholic thing.” :rolleyes: I’m trying to find biblical verses to back myself up. I know that I didn’t make this up. Can anyone help me out? Bianca
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Also, I found this blog post. I don’t think it’s Catholic, but it looks like it has some excellent discussion about the topic.

 
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Wow! I had no idea we could do that. I will read through the thread…thank you
 
I doubt you will find it in the Bible. The church teaches that sex
has two purposes: Procreation and for the mutual pleasure and joy, I paraphrase, of the couple. I think helping each other get to heaven is part of that.
 
You’re welcome. 😁 Yes, you can search for any topic in past threads…it’s very handy.
 
Marriage has a primary purpose, but also many secondary purposes. Procreation, of course, but also the union of man and wife, both physical and spiritual, the leading of the other to heaven and probably many others. We are not a simplistic faith, but one that reflects the infinite God in Whom we believe.
 
CCC 1131 The sacraments are efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us.

There is a difference between Sacramental marriage and Natural marriage.
 
I’ve seen and heard this said by many. I think it is culled from Ephesians 5: 20- and on.
 
“Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.” Prov 27:17 DR

Marriage is an intimate friendship, and a husband and wife can help scrape off each other’s pointed and rough edges. The friction of learning to love and live with your spouse helps in sanctifying each other.

Learning to esteem the other’s welfare above your own, denying your own flesh and cherishing your spouse, loving each other as Christ instructed…all of those things help you grow in holiness in the journey to Heaven.
 
The Baltimore Catechism, which is the old-school catechism used to teach children for many decades up through the 70s and 80s, explicitly stated that a purpose of marriage was for the husband and wife to help each other get to heaven.

See article on catechisms here


It was replaced by the current Catechism which states that marriage is “for the good of the spouses” and for the procreation of children. “For the good of the spouses” is rather vague and could certainly include helping each other get to heaven.

My mother always taught me that the main purpose of marriage was for the spouses to help each other to heaven, because she had been educated out of the Batlimore Catechism. It made sense to me in view of the many marriages, including mine, where the couple ends up not having children despite being open to the idea when they married. If children were the only reason to marry, then if you didn’t happen to have any, there would be no point.
 
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Slightly off topic but:

There is a book my wife and I read before we married;
Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy? by Gary L Thomas. He is not Catholic but you won’t find that out from the book.

It is a great book for any married couple to read together if thy want a sacramental marriage.

Patrick
AMDG
 
phoage said:
Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy? by Gary L Thomas
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IDK, this book presents the evangelical Protestant “Covenant” view of marriage. He purports some other questionable theories and has some good theories.

I’d move to this book after one has exhausted Catholic books, marriage is a Sacrament.
 
Ephesians 5

Instructions for Christian Households

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
 
We have a christian duty to help EVERYONE reach heaven, so this would be true in marriage, as well. Since a spouse has the biggest influence on a person’s life, the calling is even higher to lead that person to Jesus.

As for Biblical reference, I would pull any verse that commands us to love one another. Love means to seek the best for the person. It’s undeniable that God is the best for ALL of us, so to love someone is to always be doing your best to lead them to the source of all love. <3
 
sudy said:
1 Corinthians 7:16 springs to mind.
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and close to that in the text as well as in thought, 1 Corinthians 7:14, “For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband.”
 
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But what about the people who had really poor role models for marriage? It might be harder for them to figure it all out 😏
 
Hey, if books work for some people, that’s fine.
I tend to see a huge amount of “overthinking” about marriage and relationships, not only on this forum but in other media and in society in general. I think people like to think and dream and fantasize and plan. When they are actually in the thick of a marriage they don’t have time for that stuff any more and things may be very different than whatever they read, planned or thought. Just sayin’.
 
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