Question: What do the anagogical sense and a committed relationship / marriage have in common?
Let’s explore the answer…
In our modern way world, we have almost universal literacy; the lowest poverty rate in history; immediate access to a colossally powerful, ever expanding network of information (A.K.A. the Internet); sweeping technological advances in just about every industry; and no shortage of resources on parenting, personal transformation…and, a bit ironically, how to build and maintain committed relationships.
Why is that last one a bit ironic? Take a good look at Western society right now. For those of who are entrenched in it, we are practically walking memes spouting out words of wisdom to each other about how to live the best life possible, how to make each moment count, how to show that you genuinely love your significant other…just to give a few examples.
Meanwhile, we sit here at a well over 50% divorce rate, a severely high rate of single parenthood, and a whole lot of jaded people – single, married, and everything in-between — feeling despaired because of an apparently crushing amount of sneaking around behind each other’s back, lying, cheating, ghosting, flirting, tearing down the nuclear family, setting mind-numbing expectations for relationship roles, and soapboxing about a hook-up culture that, also ironically, has grown into an even bigger hook-up culture.
Are we just a bunch of hypocrites? Or is that we have so much conflicting information flying at us from different directions, that we don’t know which way is up or down anymore.
For us Catholics, this struggle leads to even more serious points to consider: We are required to believe in the Sacrament of Marriage. Which means when two Catholics marry – and as we have all heard countless times – the two become *one*. Namely, they are not just two individuals who are now in a contract with each other, or that they will make sure to learn one another’s “love language”, or that they will remain best friends no matter what, or that they will strive to be equal partners in every area of the relationship.
Yes, all those components may have their utility. However, the tie that binds all those components together is marriage is meant to be *eternal*. That by being married, both people are not only making a Covenant with each other, but they are also joining together in God’s Covenant to live in salvation through Jesus Christ, and to mirror the Divine, everlasting marriage between Christ and His Church.
This means, as Catholics, we must keep to our Sacraments. We understand that because our life as humans can be both joyous and brutal, and that is easy to fall into a life of perpetual sin, marriage must be just as nourished and nurtured as Christ’s marriage to the Church, and to our marriage to God’s kingdom.
Which brings us to understanding the analogical sense when reading Sacred Scripture. While this sense does resemble the allegorical (more on that in a little bit), the anagogical sense is specifically about our eternal future with God.
Referring again to Mr. Mark Shea and his book, Making Senses out Scripture, Shea uses an epitome of the anagogical sense: Jerusalem. And as Revelation 21:10 calls it (as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church) — the “new Jerusalem”. Shea recaps all four senses – including the anagogical — of the “new Jerusalem” described in this Scripture:
*Literal: Jerusalem is a real city on Earth and within Israel, where the Church was first physically established.
*Allegorical: Jerusalem is the spiritual Church (or Shea puts it, “an image of the church”) where Christ died and resurrected for our salvation.
*Moral: Because our salvation is born from Christ’s death and resurrection, and that we uphold our salvation by adhering to Church teaching, Jerusalem, Shea describes, “is an image of the soul”.
*Anagogical: Jerusalem represents spiritually connecting with God’s kingdom, that we will one day live in the everlasting Jerusalem – God’s eternal kingdom provided to us through salvation. Which also means eternally dwelling in Heaven.
Now, if you are thinking, “Hey, the anagogical sense also uses typology!” (I covered this term in the article on the allegorical sense) – you are correct: The anagogical sense is in fact another type of, well, typology. Just that, as mentioned earlier, the anagogical sense deals mainly with future state – that is, the everlasting.
Knowing that, let’s circle back to how this applies to the sanctity of Marriage, as well as committed relationships that, ideally, should lead to marriage: If the purpose of becoming one in a relationship is to remain *one* for all of eternity (yes, so make sure you truly love your spouse! ) – and because we are to mirror this union to our own communion with God, and as Christ formed with the Church, then we must nurture all of those facets with the same passion and care. From there, we live not only in a state of grace and actively participating in God’s kingdom through the Sacraments and his Divine instruction, but we are also preparing for our eternal future in the “new Jerusalem”.
After all, if we really are in this for an incredibly amazing, everlasting life in Heaven, then as the saying goes, there is no time like the present. And in the anagogical sense, there is also no time like the future.