Let’s consider for a moment our football analogy…the play call. All the training and practice is to prepare one to be ready to receive. To be ready for the play call in which you are crucial for its success. See how often on any given Sunday when the player is not truly ready for the play call. We all know what happens. Numerous events could result: penalty for a loss of yardage; the quarterback is sacked, the ball is fumbled, intercepted or dropped. All that training and practice results in failure.
Yet if we take our noble stance with confidence, we shall shine in that “moment of glory” and succeed. Consider all that is involved in “making the play:” designing the play, preparing to execute the play, practicing the play, communicating the signals of the play, relaying to the team the play call, and each player being aware of their role. If practice proved anything, you’ll seemingly go through the motions instinctually. You are to know your place so well that you take your stance confidently and correctly. This is chivalry at its best. And do you see how “courtship” is necessary for marriage?
The wisdom of Coach Landry bears repeating at this point: “Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.”
Ultimately for us men who are called to be husbands of woman is God’s plan. God asks of the bridegroom to be as Christ is to the Church. This is possible only if we have the confidence gained in Christian chaste living. Through that kind of confidence, a husband can be spouse to his beloved woman, his wife.
Ultimately for us men who are called to be husbands of woman is God’s plan. God asks of the bridegroom to be as Christ is to the Church. This is possible only if we have the confidence gained in Christian chaste living. Through that kind of confidence, a husband can be spouse to his beloved woman, his wife.
The Christian understanding of husband is not to be a father, it is to be the spouse of woman. A man is called first to be a husband before being called to be a father. Being a husband of woman is about chastity (completion). And as for intimacy, intimacy is conditioning my heart for her, for the sake of my wife. I can be a “suitable partner” for my wife if I can bring my confidence into play. I can bear the responsibility of being her husband because God built me with the broad shoulders to take it, to guard her from the evil of sin. And I’ve conditioned my heart in practice to be supple for her sake, in intimacy.
Again what is at stake is that life hangs in the balance of a love between husband and wife.
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