MARRIAGE

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
own profound meaning, even before the teaching of any
specific religion (cf. CCC 1602-5). Among all human love
relationships, none rivals the life long commitment of
total conjugal intimacy and self-giving of the married
partners.
• The Bible reveals this “natural covenant” of love as
the image/symbol of God the Creator’s absolute
and unfailing love. Created male and female,
human persons are created through God’s love, in
the image of God who is Love, and called to love
one another in sharing God’s own love. *
MARRIAGE IN GENESIS

• In the priestly account (cf. Gn 1:1-24a), man is

created last as the summit of creation, with
dominion over all creatures. “God created man in
His image. . . male and female He created them,”
and blessed them saying “Be fertile and multiply, fill
the earth and subdue it” (Gn 1:27f)
 "ONE BODY"
• this meant not just physical unity, but the unity
of two persons in all their basic human levels __
physical, psychological, and spiritual, or body,
mind, and heart or spirit. This unity does not
mean losing one’s own identity by merging with
another into one personality, nor yielding to
domination by the other. Rather it is “the
intimate partnership of life and love” (GS 48) in
which the couple freely are present to, think
about, care for, and enter into, each other. Their
thoughts, ideals, hopes and destinies become
intertwined.
"BECOME"
• “To become” implies a life-long process (only
begun on their wedding day) of the gradual
transformation of an “I” and a “Thou” into a
“We.” The essential condition for this “becoming
one body” is the basic equality of male and
female, asserted in the creation account. This
equality does not mean ignoring the differences
and diverse gifts and characteristics of the sexes.
Rather, it points to the basic human capacities
for knowing, willing, and free self-giving in love
that arise from being created in the image and
likeness of God who is Love
FAILURE IN CONJUGAL UNITY/EQUALITY

• But human history presents one long account of failing to live up to this
creation ideal of “becoming one body.” Genesis 3 sketches the origin of sin
and its basic consequences in human marriage. It is sin, not God’s plan, that
changes marriage from conjugal union of equal partners into mutual
accusation and domination of one by the other. “God said to the 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 kinds of sexual disorders that destroy human dignity
(cf. CCC 1606-8).
MARRIAGE IN GOD’S REDEMPTIVE PLAN

• “You must not break faith with the wife of your youth. For I hate
divorce, says the Lord, the God of Israel” (Mal 2:15f; cf. CCC 1609-
11). 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 redemptive love” with His people, the Church.
1. THE NEW COVENANT

• In Jesus Christ, God’s covenant with His people was brought to unsurpassable heights (cf. CCC
1612-15). “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son” (Jn 3:16).
• • Jesus is ‘God’s Covenant-with-His-people’ in person: God and man united in one person.
• • He is God’s perfect Self-gift to man, and man’s loving response to God.
• • In Jesus, the new Adam, God has redeemed all of us, members of the first Adam’s race.
• • In Jesus, “we were all baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12:13), all “members of Christ” who
cleansed his people “in the bath of water by the power of the word ” (Eph 5:26). Thus, Jesus
is the Bridegroom of God’s New Covenant People who are invited to share the wedding feast
in God’s Kingdom (Mt 22:2ff).
2.MARRIAGE, IMAGE OF THE NEW COVENANT

• Vatican II describes how Christian spouses “are fortified and receive a kind of
consecration in the duties and dignity of their state . . . as spouses fulfill their
conjugal and family obligations, they are penetrated with the Spirit of Christ,
who fills their whole lives with faith, hope and charity” (GS 48). The Second
Preface of the Wedding Mass prays to the Father: This outpouring of love in
the new covenant of grace is symbolized in the marriage covenant that seals
the love of husband and wife and reflects your divine plan of love.
3. NEW TESTAMENT GROUND

• The covenant between man and woman is seen as the image of

the covenant between Christ and the Church. Husbands and wives,
therefore, should love and act toward each other as Christ loves
and treats us, his Church. Hence, marriage partners are
admonished: “Defer to one another out of reverence for Christ”
(Eph 5:21). All domination by one partner over the other is thus
directly rejected.