From Easter Joy to Ascension Mission: The Married Couple as Witness

Overview

Holiness does not come from wishing for someone else’s vocation. It comes through faithfully living the one God has given you. A husband becomes holy by becoming a holy husband, and a wife becomes holy by becoming a holy wife. I recently worked with a couple in their mid-eighties whose renewed commitment to their marriage inspired even their great-grandchildren to reassess their own relationships. One faithful marriage can influence generations.

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The weeks between Easter and Ascension remind Christians that Our Lord never intended the Resurrection to remain a private consolation. Christ rose, taught, strengthened His disciples, and then sent them into the world. Marriage shares in that same mission. A husband and wife are not called merely to coexist peacefully or build a comfortable home. They are called to sanctify one another and become witnesses of Christ to the world around them.

This is why the Church teaches that holiness comes through faithfully living one’s vocation. A married man does not become holy by imagining himself a monk. A wife does not become holy by wishing she had a different state in life. God gives sanctifying grace through the duties and sacrifices proper to the vocation He has entrusted to each person (Catechism of the Catholic Church [CCC], 2019).

For married couples, sanctity comes through ordinary fidelity. It comes through patience at the dinner table, forgiveness after arguments, generosity in intimacy, prayer together, raising children, carrying crosses, and persevering through years of joy and suffering. Holiness is not found in escaping one’s vocation. It is found in embracing it.

The Gospel readings during this season emphasize obedience, love, perseverance, and mission. In the Novus Ordo readings for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Christ says, “If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15, Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition). Love is not merely emotional affection. Christian love transforms action. It changes habits. It changes how spouses speak, sacrifice, forgive, and serve.

The Traditional Latin Mass readings during Rogation season emphasize prayerful dependence upon God. “Ask, and you shall receive” (John 16:24, Douay-Rheims). Christian marriage requires this spirit of petition. Many couples attempt to improve their marriages through technique alone while neglecting prayer and conversion. Yet marital renewal begins when spouses humbly ask God for the grace to become the husband or wife they are called to be.

The Byzantine tradition during this same period commemorates the healing of the man born blind. Spiritual blindness affects marriages as well. Couples can become blind to their selfishness, blind to their spouse’s wounds, or blind to the quiet ways grace is already working within the home. Christ restores sight so that husband and wife can once again see each other with charity, gratitude, and hope.

When spouses begin truly living their vocation, the effects rarely remain isolated within the marriage itself. Holiness radiates outward.

I once worked with a couple in their mid-eighties who decided, after decades of marriage, to begin intentionally rebuilding their relationship. They improved their communication. They learned to express affection again. They became gentler with one another. They prayed together more intentionally. They chose humility over resentment.

Within a few months, the change in their marriage became noticeable even to their great-grandchildren.

Their children and grandchildren began reassessing their own marriages. Old generational patterns started breaking. Couples who had normalized distance, bitterness, or emotional neglect began pursuing reconciliation and change. The transformation of one elderly couple quietly influenced dozens of marriages throughout their family.

This is how Christian witness often works. Most people will never preach from a pulpit or write theological books. Yet every married couple preaches something through the way they live. A joyful, faithful marriage becomes visible proof that sacrificial love is possible. It becomes evidence that grace is real.

The Ascension reminds us that Christ sends His disciples into the world. Married couples participate in that mission first within the home and then through the witness their home gives to others. A holy marriage strengthens children, grandchildren, friendships, parishes, and entire communities.

Many Catholics underestimate the evangelizing power of their marriage. They assume holiness belongs primarily to priests, religious, missionaries, or theologians. Yet the Church repeatedly teaches that all the baptized are called to holiness within their proper vocation (Lumen Gentium, 1964).

Your path to sanctity is not someone else’s life.

It is yours.

The husband becomes holy by becoming a holy husband.The wife becomes holy by becoming a holy wife. And together, they become a sign to the world of Christ’s faithful love for His Church.

References

Catechism of the Catholic Church. (2019). Libreria Editrice Vaticana.https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/_INDEX.HTM

Holy Bible, Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. (1966). Ignatius Press.

Second Vatican Council. (1964). Lumen gentium: Dogmatic constitution on the Church. Vatican.va.https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19641121_lumen-gentium_en.html

The Holy Bible translated from the Latin Vulgate: Douay-Rheims version. (1899). John Murphy Company.