"The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state
has been established by the Creator and endowed by him with its own proper
laws.... God himself is the author of marriage." [GS 48 # 1]. The vocation
to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from
the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite
the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different
cultures, social structures, and spiritual attitudes. These differences
should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics.
Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: "It
is not good that the man should be alone." [Gen 2:18] The woman, "flesh of
his flesh," i.e., his counterpart, his equal, his nearest in all things,
is given to him by God as a "helpmate"; she thus represents God from whom
comes our help. [Cf. Gen 2:18-25] "Therefore a man leaves his father and his
mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh." [Gen 2:24].
The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two
lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been "in the
beginning": "So they are no longer two, but one flesh." [Mt 19:6].
The nuptial covenant between God and his people Israel had prepared the way
for the new and everlasting covenant in which the Son of God, by becoming
incarnate and giving his life, has united to himself in a certain way all
mankind saved by him, thus preparing for "the wedding-feast of the Lamb."
[Rev 19:7, 9; GS 22].
On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign - at his
mother's request - during a wedding feast. [Cf. Jn 2:1-11] The Church
attaches great importance to Jesus' presence at the wedding at Cana.
She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the
proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of
Christ's presence.
In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning of the union
of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning. The matrimonial
union of man and woman is indissoluble: God himself has determined it
"what therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder." [Mt 19:6].
This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond may
have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize.
However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too
heavy - heavier than the Law of Moses. [Cf. Mk 8:34; Mt 11:29-30] By coming
to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives
the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of
God. It is by following Christ, renouncing themselves, and taking up their
crosses that spouses will be able to "receive" the original meaning of
marriage and live it with the help of Christ. [Cf. Mt 19:11] This grace of
Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ's cross, the source of all Christian
life.
This is what the Apostle Paul makes clear when he says: "Husbands, love your
wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might
sanctify her," adding at once: "'For this reason a man shall leave his
father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.
This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church."
[Eph 5:25-26, 31-32; Cf. Gen 2:24]
The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and
the Church. Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a nuptial
mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath [Cf. Eph 5:26-27] which precedes
the wedding feast, the Eucharist. Christian marriage in its turn becomes an
efficacious sign, the sacrament of the covenant of Christ and the Church.
Since it signifies and communicates grace, marriage between baptized persons
is a true sacrament of the New Covenant. [Cf. DS 1800; CIC, Can. 1055 # 2]
back
top
next
Are you aware of the new 'Euthanasia' Bill before
Parliament?