The Sacrament of Marriage

Karen Pepe • September 29, 2021

From pastor’s desk on the 27 th Sunday in Ordinary Time, year B

This Sunday’s two readings touch upon a very difficult topic in our modern society, namely marriage and divorce.  Today, many people completely reject the Revelation and the teaching of the Church regarding marriage and family.  Popular culture no longer perceives marriage as something intended by God.  Even among many Catholics, marriage is understood more as a contract rather than the sacrament. By and large, marriage is viewed now as a social construct that can be altered according to the circumstances.

There are two immediate consequences of considering marriage as merely social and cultural constructs.  First, without reference to God, marriage seems to be without higher purpose.  Accordingly, the couple does not do what the Lord intends for married life.  In many cases there is no real commitment to marriage.  A man and a woman may remain in marriage as long as it feels good, but if something does not work, they simply separate and divorce without even trying to seek solutions to their deeper problems.  Secondly, since marriage is perceived as a social concept, it can be redefined.  So now it is no longer one man and one woman, but all sorts of configurations involving same sex unions or even more than two people at a time. 

In an age of confusion, we need to come back to Divine Revelation in order to understand what marriage is, in the eyes of God.  When asked about divorce, our Lord Jesus said to the disciples: “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female” (Mark 10:6).  Jesus teaches us plainly that God intended marriage only between one man and one woman.  Although the Church teaches us to respect the dignity of each human person, notwithstanding their sexual preference, at the same time the Church does not allow same sex unions.  The Church’s stance is based on the Revelation, which views marriage not as a social construct but as a reality that God established for the good of humanity.  Hence, marriage between man and woman is a sacred institution that goes beyond natural or social order.

It was Saint John Paul II who expounded on the theme of marriage and family more than any other pope.  All faithful Catholics seeking the answers about marriage and family should refer to his teachings known as the Theology of the Body.  John Paul II also summarized the Church’s understanding of sacramental marriage and the role of the Christian family in his apostolic exhortation Familiaris Consortio.  The late pope formulated God’s plan for humanity in these words:

The only "place" in which this self-giving in its whole truth is made possible is marriage, the covenant of conjugal love freely and consciously chosen, whereby man and woman accept the intimate community of life and love willed by God Himself, which only in this light manifests its true meaning. The institution of marriage is not an undue interference by society or authority, or the extrinsic imposition of a form. Rather it is an interior requirement of the covenant of conjugal love, which is publicly affirmed as unique and exclusive, in order to live in complete fidelity to the plan of God, the Creator. A person's freedom, far from being restricted by this fidelity, is secured against every form of subjectivism or relativism and is made a sharer in creative Wisdom.

( Familiaris consortio, 11)

“[Jesus] reveals the original truth of marriage, the truth of the "beginning," and freeing man from his hardness of heart, He makes man capable of realizing this truth in its entirety.

This revelation reaches its definitive fullness in the gift of love which the Word of God makes to humanity in assuming a human nature, and in the sacrifice which Jesus Christ makes of Himself on the Cross for His bride, the Church.  In this sacrifice there is entirely revealed that plan which God has imprinted on the humanity of man and woman since their creation; the marriage of baptized persons thus becomes a real symbol of that new and eternal covenant sanctioned in the blood of Christ. The Spirit which the Lord pours forth gives a new heart, and renders man and woman capable of loving one another as Christ has loved us. Conjugal love reaches that fullness to which it is interiorly ordained, conjugal charity, which is the proper and specific way in which the spouses participate in and are called to live the very charity of Christ who gave Himself on the Cross. ( Familiaris consortio, 13)

As we realize how our modern culture devalues the understanding of traditional marriage, let us pray and inquire what God intends for human marriage.  We also must offer prayer for those couples that go through crises in their marriage, so that with God’s aid they may become open to dialogue and reconciliation, while acknowledging a great mission God entrusted them through the sacrament of marriage.

I wish you all blessed week. Fr. Janusz Mocarski, pastor

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