For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh.

“Above all, with His holy and undefiled hands He formed man, the most excellent [of His creatures], and truly great through the understanding given him — the express likeness of His own image. For thus says God: "Let us make man in our image, and after our likeness. So God made man; male and female He created them." [Genesis 1:26-27] Having thus finished all these things, He approved them, and blessed them, and said, "Increase and multiply." [Genesis 1:28] We see, then, how all righteous men have been adorned with good works, and how the Lord Himself, adorning Himself with His works, rejoiced. Having therefore such an example, let us without delay accede to His will, and let us work the work of righteousness with our whole strength.”

“For, inasmuch as Adam straightway predicted that "great mystery of Christ and the church," when he said, "This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they two shall become one flesh," he experienced the influence of the Spirit. For there fell upon him that ecstasy, which is the Holy Ghost's operative virtue of prophecy.”

“Moreover, that Nicostratus, having lost the diaconate of sacred administrations, because he had abstracted the Church's money by a sacrilegious fraud, and disowned the deposits of the widows and orphans, did not wish so much to come into Africa as to escape thither from the city, from the consciousness of his rapines and his frightful crimes. And now a deserter and a fugitive from the Church, as if to have changed the clime were to change the man, he goes on to boast and announce himself a confessor, although he can no longer either be or be called a confessor of Christ who has denied Christ's Church. For when the Apostle Paul says, "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church; " -when, I say, the blessed apostle says this, and with his sacred voice testifies to the unity of Christ with the Church, cleaving to one another with indivisible links, how can he be with Christ who is not with the spouse of Christ, and in His Church? Or how does he assume to himself the charge of ruling or governing the Church, who has spoiled and wronged the Church of Christ?”

“"For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the twain shall become one flesh." Behold again a third ground of obligation; for he shows that a man leaving them that begat him, and from whom he was born, is knit to his wife; and that then the one flesh is, father, and mother, and the child, from the substance of the two commingled. For indeed by the commingling of their seeds is the child produced, so that the three are one flesh. Thus then are we in relation to Christ; we become one flesh by participation, and we much more than the child. And why and how so? Because so it has been from the beginning. Now why did he not say of the wife also, She shall be joined unto her husband? Why, I say, is this? Because he was discoursing concerning love, and was discoursing to the husband. For to her indeed he discourses concerning reverence, and says, "the husband is the head of the wife", and again, "Christ is the Head of the Church." Whereas to him he discourses concerning love, and commits to him this province of love, and declares to him that which pertains to love, thus binding him and cementing him to her. For the man that leaves his father for the sake of his wife, and then again, leaves this very wife herself and abandons her, what forbearance can he deserve?”

“If Christ cleaved to the church so that they became one flesh, in what way did he "leave" his Father? In what way did he "leave" his mother? He left his Father in the sense that, when he was in the form of God he … emptied himself, assuming the form of a slave. … That means that he left the Father, not by deserting him or withdrawing from him but by coming to humanity in a lowly form in which he temporarily divested his glory with the Father.”

“Above, the Apostle exhorted the Ephesians to the love of their wives in two ways: namely, by the example of Christ's love toward the Church, and also from a man's love of himself; here, thirdly, he exhorts them by the authority of Scripture. And concerning this he does three things: first he introduces the authority; second he expounds it mystically, at the words this is a great sacrament, etc.; third he adapts it according to the literal sense to his purpose, at the words nevertheless let each one of you, etc. This authority is said in Genesis 2:24; it was spoken by Adam when he saw his wife, namely formed from his rib. But against this it is said in Matthew 19:4f. that God said this. I respond: Adam said this as one inspired by God, but God said it as the one inspiring and teaching Adam. And we likewise say this same thing, and many other things which the Lord said, with the Spirit of God teaching; hence it is said in Matthew 10:20: for it is not you who speak, etc. It should be noted here that in the aforesaid authority a threefold union of man to woman is designated. The first is through the affection of love, because there is so great an affection of each that they leave their parents. 2 Esdras 4:25: a man loves his wife more than his father, and many have become deranged on account of their wives, etc. There, many things. But this is natural, because natural appetite is in accord with due action. Now it is established that in all higher agents there is an appetite to bestow and share with lower things, and therefore natural love is in them toward lower things. And because man, with respect to his father and mother, is inferior, not superior, therefore he is naturally more affected toward his wife, of whom he is the superior, and toward his children, than toward his parents; and also because his wife is joined to him for the act of generation. The second union is through companionship. Hence he says: and he shall cleave to his wife, etc. Ecclesiasticus 25:1: in three things my spirit is well pleased, etc. The third is through carnal union, at the words: and they shall be two in one flesh, that is, in carnal work. For in any generation there is an active power and a passive power; but in plants both are in the same subject, whereas in perfect animals they are distinguished. And therefore in the act of generation the male and the female in animals stand to each other just as, in plants, it happens by one and the same single body alone. Next he expounds it mystically, and says this is a great sacrament, that is, a sign of a sacred reality, namely of the union of Christ and the Church. Wisdom 6:24: I will not hide from you the sacrament of God. It should be noted here that four sacraments are called great: namely Baptism, by reason of its effect, because it blots out guilt and opens the door of Paradise; Confirmation, by reason of its minister, because it is conferred only by bishops and by no others; the Eucharist, by reason of its content, because it contains the whole Christ; and likewise Matrimony, by reason of its signification, because it signifies the union of Christ and the Church. And therefore, if it is expounded mystically, the preceding letter should be expounded thus: for this cause shall a man—namely, Christ—leave his father and mother. He left, I say, his father, insofar as he was sent into the world and made incarnate. John 16:28: I came forth from the Father, and came into the world, etc. And his mother, namely the synagogue. Jeremiah 12:7: I have left my house, I have given up my inheritance, etc. And he shall cleave to his wife, the Church. Matthew, last chapter: behold, I am with you all days, etc. Next he argues according to the literal sense, expounding the aforesaid example. For there are certain things in the sacred Scripture of the Old Testament which are said only of Christ, such as that in Psalm 21:17: they have dug my hands, etc.; and that in Isaiah 7:14: behold a virgin shall conceive, etc. But certain other things can be expounded of Christ and of others, yet principally of Christ, and of others as a figure of Christ, like the aforesaid example. And therefore it must be expounded first of Christ and afterward of others. And therefore he says nevertheless let each one of you, let every man love his wife, as if to say: it is said principally of Christ, even if not singularly, because it must be expounded and fulfilled in others as a figure of Christ. But he says as himself, because just as each one loves himself in relation to God, so he ought to love his wife, not insofar as she draws him to sin. Luke 14:26: if any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, and his wife, etc., it follows: he cannot be my disciple. But what of the wife? But let the wife fear her husband, namely with a fear of reverence and subjection, because she ought to be subject to him.”

“For--The propagation of the Church from Christ, as that of Eve from Adam, is the foundation of the spiritual marriage. The natural marriage, wherein "a man leaves father and mother (the oldest manuscripts omit 'his') and is joined unto his wife," is not the principal thing meant here, but the spiritual marriage represented by it, and on which it rests, whereby Christ left the Father's bosom to woo to Himself the Church out of a lost world: Eph 5:32 proves this: His earthly mother as such, also, He holds in secondary account as compared with His spiritual Bride (Luk 2:48-49; Luk 8:19-21; Luk 11:27-28). He shall again leave His Father's abode to consummate the union (Mat 25:1-10; Rev 19:7). they two shall be one flesh--So the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, &c., read (Gen 2:24), instead of "they shall be one flesh." So Mat 19:5. In natural marriage, husband and wife combine the elements of one perfect human being: the one being incomplete without the other. So Christ, as God-man, is pleased to make the Church, the body, a necessary adjunct to Himself, the Head. He is the archetype of the Church, from whom and according to whom, as the pattern, she is formed. He is her Head, as the husband is of the wife (Rom 6:5; Co1 11:3; Co1 15:45). Christ will never allow any power to sever Himself and His bride, indissolubly joined (Mat 19:6; Joh 10:28-29; Joh 13:1).”