An excerpt from a recent New York Times article on why the 25th anniversary is so elusive for married couples:

“We know that somewhere between 40 percent and 50 percent of marriages dissolve,” said Barbara Risman, executive officer of the Council on Contemporary Families, a research group. “Now, when people marry, everyone wonders, is this one of those marriages that will be around for awhile.”

At work the other day, I had a long conversation with some co-workers about why divorce is so prevalent today. One of issues that came up was cheating. Why is it that lot of marriages end in divorce because one or both of the partners end up cheating on the other? We discussed this question for awhile and one person mentioned, "People end up cheating because of a breakdown in intimacy." This reminded me of what one of my married friends once told me: "The more intimate your relationship with your wife, the less likely your eyes are to wander."

If marriage is meant to be a reflection of Christ's love for the Church, then the way for the Church to keep from wandering towards idols and self exaltation is to ensure that its intimacy with Christ is always strong. I have noticed this in my own life. My eyes stray from God and towards the things of this world when I fail to draw near to God. Just as we all work at building our human relationships, so we must work at building our relationship with our Father.

I hope that this Valentine's Day, even as some of us spend time with that significant other, we will be reminded of the need to draw near to Christ and to do the things that are necessary to build a solid, intimate relationship with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.