Marriage

as "Covenant Love"
• Marriage is a unique sacrament in that the
vocation of marriage itself is a foundational
human reality built into the very created
nature of man and woman, with its
profound meaning, even before the
teaching of any specific religion.
• It is unique also in that whereas other
sacraments use material things like water,
bread, wine and oil, in marriage the
"external sign" is the love relationship
between spouses.
• The bible reveals this "natural covenant" of
love as the image or symbol ogf God
Creator's absolute and unfailing love.
• Created male and female, human persons
were created through God's love, and were
called to love one another.
A. Marriage in Genesis
• The two inspired accounts of
creation in Genesis provide a firm
basis for understanding man and
woman and their conjugal union.
• In the priestly account, man is
created last as the summit of
creation, with dominion over all
creatures.
• "God created man in His image…
male an female He created them,"
and blessed them saying "Be fertile
and multiply, fill the earth and
subdue it" (Gn 1:27f)
• The second, older (Yahwist)
creation account focuses more
specifically on the creation of man,
who is made complete by the
creation of woman. "It is not good
for man to be alone. I will make a
suitable partner for him… that is
why a man leaves his father and
clings to his wife, and the two of
them become one body"
• Personal purpose of marriage:
mutual love, support, unity of the
couple.
• One "Body" or Flesh
• "Become"
 B. Failure in Conjugal Unity/
Equality
• It is sin, not God's plan, that changes
marriage from conjugal union of equal
partners into mutual accusations and
domination of one by another.
• "God said to woman: 'Your urge shall
be for your husband, and he shall be
your master'" (Gn 3:16)
• Thus, we have the start of the sad
history of infidelity, adultery, divorce,
broken families, and all kind of sexual
disorders that destroy human dignity
(cf. CCC 1606-8)
• C. Marriage in God's Redemptive Plan
• God, however, ever faithful to His covenant
of love, included marriage and family in His
redemptive plan.
• The OT prophets, by using marriage as a
symbol of God's covenant with His Chosen
People, had already picture marriage as a
covenant in which should imitate God's
own fidelity.
• But it was only through Jesus Christ that
the "covenant of human love," symbol of
God's love for his people in creation, could
be raised to become the sacrament of the
"new covenant of Christ's redemptivev
love" with His people, the Church/
1. The New Covenant
2. Marriage, Image of the New Covenant
3. New Testament Ground
 II. THE THREE GOODS OF MARRIAGE
St. Augustine spoke of the three goods or
values of marriage as offspring, mutual
love/fidelity, and the sacrament.
A. Marriage as Sacrament
• Catholic tradition has recognized "marriage of
the baptized is one of the seven sacraments of
the New Covenant. Marriage is seen as:
a) An ongoing saving symbolic action.
b) Grounded in the ministry of Christ and
continued in and through the Church, which
c) When proclaimed, realized and celebrated in
faith
d) Makes present and actually shares in God's
love and faithfulness in Jesus Christ, in the
pattern of his Paschal Mystery.
• As the Third Preface of the Wedding Mass
prays to the Father:"The love of man and
woman is made holy in the Sacrament of
Marriage, and becomes the mirror of your
everlasting love."
1. Sacrament: Rite and Ongoing Married Life
It refers to two essential things: both the
sacramental celebration of marriage, and the
ongoing married life.
2. "Why get married in the Church?"
a) Today many young adults seem to take
Marriage in the Church as merely some social
custom (our parents prefer it this way), or
possibly a question of personal preference or
even financial considerations.
b) But real Marriage in the Church is none of
these. It is, rather, the solemn entry of the
spouses into a binding commitment before God
and the Christian Community, declaring " We
love one another and want our love to last
forever. We ask you to respect this
commitment, and help us keep it."
c) This brings out sharply the fundamental
"untruth" inherent in "trial marriages" or "free
unions" (living-in) which attack both the
intrinsic dignity of human person, and the truth
of their relationships in the community.
 3. Marriage: The Sign of Christ
• Christ, the Primordial Sacrament, then, is
doubly associated with marriage, as with the
other ritual sacraments. He both grounds and
provides the basis for Christian Marriage, and
is himself the fullest exemplification of the
spiritual reality symbolized: God's perfect
covenant "in person," THE LOVER, just as we
saw he is The Baptized One, The Confirmed
One, The Really Present One, The Reconciler,
The Healer, and of course, The Priest.

4. Sacrament of the Church

a) The Church is the foundational sacrament,
making the Risen Christ concretely present in
history through its ritual sacraments to the
members of His body. Christian Marriage and
family life are said to constitute the Church in
the miniature, the "domestic Church."
 b. The specific similarities between the
Christian family and the Church are
instructive.
• First, both the Church, as the People of God, and
the Christian Family, are communities united
together in love through the power of the Holy
Spirit under the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Second, the members of both are called to
constant growing in love with one another and
with Christ, a maturing process of constant
conversion involving purification and
reconciliation.
• Third, both the Church and Christian Family
worship around the Table of the Lord, sharing in
the Eucharistic celebration with Christ, the unique
Mediatior.
• Fourth, Church and family both share Christ's
mission of loving service, responding to human
needs and promoting the kingdom of God among
men and women.
• Finally, both Church and family are pilgrim of
people to a journey toward a final destination
glimpsed only in Faith.
 5. What the Church does for the family
a) Today, many Filipino Catholics are challenged to
defend the Church's action regarding family life.
John Paul II answers by explaining how the Church
as Mother "gives birth to educates, and builds up
the Christian Family" by exercising its saving mission
for the family.
• By proclaiming the word of God, the Church
reveals to the Christian Family its true identity
By celebrating sacraments, the Church enriches and
strengthens the Christian family with the grace of
the Christ for its sanctification to the glory of the
Father
• By the continuous proclamation of the new
commandmentof the love, the Church encourages
and guides the Christian family to service of love so
that it may imitate and relive the same sel-giving
and sacrificial love that Jesus has for the entire
human race
6. Mission of the Family
• For its part, the Christian family shares in the
saving mission of the Church since the married
couples not only "receive the love of Christ and
become saved community, but they are also called
upon to communicate Christ's love to their
brethren, thus becoming saving community."
 B. Conjugal love and fidelity
• Marriage and family are "founded and given life by
love" in order to live with fidelity the reality of
communion. "Without love the family cannot live
grow and perfect itself as a community of persons."
But the over-riding problem here is: what precisely is
true love?
1. Love in Christian Marriage
• Love in marriage refers not to any superficial,
romanticized sentiment, but to the deepest, most
fundamental reality of human life.
2. Married Love as Friendship
• To speak of married love as "friendship" may seem
quite inadequate at first site. But real authentic
friendship is our most unselfish enduring mutual
love, grounded on our free, unshakeable
commitment to the other for the other's sake, not
for our own good.
• Friendship brings out the fundamental equality of
the partners in sharing not just physically, but on all
levels of their mind and spirit.
 3. Practical implications of Married Love
• Conjugal unity does not come about automatically,
nor by chance. The partners have to work at
fostering this unity between their real - not
romantically idealized - selves.

4. Two Aspects of Graced Conjugal Love

• Integration of their Sexuality
• Conjugal love is never a romantic, self-centered,
individualistic reality separated from the actual
social, economic and cultural conditions of the
partners.

5. Marriage Fidelity/ Indissolubility

• The very nature of authentic conjugal love of the
spouse argues for constant fidelity.
• Christ proclaimed "Therefore, let no man separate
what God has joined" (Mt 19:6)
 C. Serving Life: Offspring
• "For God Himself is the author of marriage and has
endowed it with various benefits and with various
ends in view: all these have a very important bearing
on"
 the constitution of the human race
 the personal development and eternal destiny of the
individual members of a family
 the dignity, stability, peace, and prosperity of the family
and of the whole human race
• The Council then immediately explicitates the focus
on offspring: "By their very nature, the institution of
marriage itself and conjugal love are ordained for the
procreation and education of children, and find in
them their ultimate crown.
III. INTEGRATION OF MARRIAGE
GOALS
• What the Council has done is to bring together the
unitive and procreative goals of marriage: conjugal
love and offspring.
 A. Family Planning
• The Church teaches the need for responsible
parenthood.
B. Vocation of Married Life
• Marriage is a vocation to fuller life in Christ, in
love that is sealed, purified, deepened and
strengthened by the Spirit of Love, the Spirit of
the Father and Risen Christ.

IV. MARRIAGE SPIRITUALITY

• Married couples and parents have their own
proper path to holiness by faithful love,
sustaining one another in grace all through
their lives and forming their children in
Christian truths and evangelical virtues. This
authentic and profound conjugal and family
spirituality is live out in the quality of the
marital and family relationships, marked by
fidelity, a spirit of mutual respect and
readiness to forgive, generous service, and
prayer.
 A. Marriage and the Kingdom of God
• Christ came preaching the Kingdom of God, a
"Kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and
grace, of justice, love and peace" (Preface of
Christ the King)
• The truth of God's Kingdom is not just avoiding
lies, but sharing one's own ideas, feelings,
hopes, and sorrows, as well as really listening to
one another
B. The Ministry of Marriage
• Christian spouses minister to each other by
strengthening each other's faith, supporting,
counseling, and easing each other's burdens in
healing and comforting.
• They minister to their children, most of all by
having a lasting loving relationship with each
other that establishes a sound family
atmosphere.
• Christian family ministers to the wider
community.
C. In the Pattern of the Paschal
Mystery
• Christ solemnly proclaimed: This is my
commandment: love one another as I
have loved you. There is no greater
love than to lay down one's own life for
one's friends" (Jn 15:12f)
• Thus, for us conjugal and family love,
follows the Paschal pattern of dying to
rise to new life.
D. Marriage and the Eucharist
• Vatican II directed that marriage is
normally to be celebrated within the
Mass since the Eucharistic Sacrifice of
the New and Eternal Covenant
Christian spouses encounter the source
from which their own marriage
covenant flows and is continuously
renewed.
 V. VOCATION TO CELIBATE
LOVING
• Jesus own proclamation of the
Good News brought two
important changes in the living
out of the two great
Commandments of Love.
1. As we have already seen, he re-
established the original unity and
indissolubility of marriage
2.He invited consecrated life-long
celibacy, those who "have
renounced sex for the sake of
God's reign. Let him accept his
teaching who can" (Mt 19:12)