The deutero-Pauline and pastoral epistles affirm the important of marriage and the family. It also affirms that the union of Christ and the Church is the basis of marriage. While not reinforcing patriarchy, but only asserting that Christians did not oppose the Roman sociocultural order, husbands loving their wives as their own flesh are only doing what Christ does with the Church. A personal irrevocable consent seals the covenant of marriage. The redemptive power of Christ and the salvific activity of the Church rules, enriches, and subsumes authentic married love into divine love.
People marry and remain in marriage because they love each other.
Marriage is not just a ceremony by which two people are legally bound together. As a sacrament, marriage is an act of worship, and expression of faith, a sign of the Church's unity, and a mode of Christ's presence. The expression of the mutual love which as at the heart of the sacrament consists of more than biological union. It involves the goof of the whole person. This principle removes the unintended harshness of a given law.