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Fr. Matt’s Catechetical Corner

Sacraments of Vocation: The Beauty of Holy Matrimony

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Happy Sunday! As we continue our reflections on the Sacraments of Vocation, we are going to begin with
Marriage in order to reflect on the gift that this Sacrament is for so many. To that end, we will spend a great
deal of time focusing on this Sacrament and various aspects of it
In order to better understand marriage, we need to look at the definition which is found in The Catechism of
the Catholic Church (1601): “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between
themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and
the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by
Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.” From this definition, we note the following:

  1. Marriage is a covenant: This is a total gift of self for the good of another. It necessarily begins a
    process of purification by which those who enter into this sacrament are moved to surrender their
    ego and truly love and respect those entrusted to them.
  2. Marriage is between man and woman: Marriage is always between one man and one woman as
    was established by God at the moment of creation. This complementarity of being is meant to
    draw each of the spouses out of themselves and into a relationship of respect while ensuring that
    both mother and father are present to each other and their children.
  3. Marriage is for the whole life: It is not something we opt in and out of. Spouses remain and never
    stop living this covenant. This is why the Church does not support divorce: Christ desires respect
    and permanence in marriage, and this often requires a great deal of humility and forgiveness.
  4. Marriage is ordered towards the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of
    children: Through the grace of this Sacrament, married couples participate in the creation and
    formation of life through their intimate union. This union is meant to ground the couple more
    deeply in their love for each other and allow room, through openness to life, for God to entrust the
    number of children that he desires to each couple. This act of entrustment on the part of God is
    fundamental to understand this part of Marriage. God already has in his mind the number and
    personalities of the children he intends to send a couple. This openness to life is a surrender to
    God and a reception of his gifts as he desires to send them. God, for his part, wants to entrust
    souls to his married couples so that they can form disciples of Christ and future citizens of
    Heaven through their living of this Sacrament by which they form each other as well.
    Stay tuned for more!

The Garden and the Sanctuary: The Genesis of Marriage

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Happy Sunday! As we continue our reflections on marriage, we need to go back to Genesis to
understand the foundations of marriage as God intended. Keeping in mind that the beauty of
marriage is woven into creation itself, we can note the following:

  1. When God made Adam, he literally “made” or “formed” him ( , ר ַצָיto form) (Gen. 2:7).
    God made Adam with a purpose, and that purpose is to “tend” ( , ד ַב ָעabad) and
    “keep” ( , ר ַמ ָשshamar) the garden (Gen. 2:15). These words are priestly terms (e.g.
    Numbers 3 and 18) and speak to how a priest is to care for the sanctuary of God that
    has been entrusted to him. We are meant to understand, therefore, that Adam is a
    priest-figure in the eyes of God and that he is meant to care for that which is entrusted
    to him as if it were the sanctuary of God.
  2. God notes, however, that it is not good for Adam to be alone (Gen. 2:18). God does not
    intend for Adam to undertake this mission alone, especially since the animals God has
    created prove to be unsuitable partners for Adam in the fulfillment of his mission. For
    this reason, God casts Adam in a deep sleep and draws the suitable partner from
    Adam himself.
  3. God, however, does not make this partner he has envisioned for Adam. God, rather,
    builds ( , הָנ ָבbanah) this partner for Adam (Gen. 2:22). The symbolism here is clear:
    God is building a personified sanctuary to be Adam’s partner. This is the one who is to
    receive Adam, to be a sanctuary for his heart, and the one who is to support him in his
    mission. Adam, for his part, must never take her for granted. He is to receive her as the
    gift she is and care for her as one who is entrusted to him. This mutual gift of self will
    then result in man and woman participating in God’s own power through the act of
    creation itself.
  4. This mutual self-giving by which Adam and Eve lay down their lives for each other is
    the foundation of marriage itself. Marriage is not something we enter into for our own
    pleasure: it is something we are moved to enter into through our own self-gift. This is
    why Adam “recognizes” Eve by saying here at last is bone of my bone and flesh of my
    flesh (Gen. 2:23).
    With all of this in mind, we can begin to see why this would be elevated to the level of a
    Sacrament by Christ. By living the foundation of marriage in the world, a married couple can
    become, by the grace of the Sacrament, a powerful sign for the Truth and Beauty of marriage
    and God’s love for every human person. Stay tuned for more!

Marriage: More Than a Contract, A Sacred Covenant

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Happy Sunday! As we continue our reflections on marriage, we are going to move to the Gospel of
Mark to see what Christ teaches concerning marriage, and then we will look at how it becomes a
Sacrament in the Gospel of John. In Mark 10, we read the following:
The Pharisees approached and asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” They were
testing him. He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?” They replied, “Moses
permitted him to write a bill of divorce and dismiss her.” But Jesus told them, “Because of the
hardness of your hearts he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation,
‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and
be joined to his wife], and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” In the house the disciples
again questioned him about this. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits
adultery.”
There are several key points here we should pay attention to:

Why the connection between divorce and adultery? It is because marriage is more than
a contract. Marriage is a covenant, that is, a complete self-gift for the good of the other.
This is why divorce is not meant to be an option in the mind of God. To give one’s word
one moment and try to nullify it the next is not marriage. Marriage means that we live up
to our marriage vows.
With that being said, I would like to add a clarification. Marriage is meant to be permanent, but that
doesn’t mean that every marriage is perfect. There are marriages where violence, abuse, and
manipulation are lived experiences. Christ’s teaching does NOT mean that the victims are stuck.
It means, rather, that one has to investigate to see what problems existed before and after the
marriage (meaning that the gift of the spouse’s word was invalid). This is why we have the
annulment process as Catholics: we seek to be faithful to Christ’s own teaching.

Divorce was allowed under the Mosaic Law due to the “hardness of hearts” instead of
the plan of God. This is why the Church does not support divorce and always supports
marriage as permanent.

In marriage, God joins the couple. This is not a mere human act that can be dissolved by
another human act. To enter into marriage requires a divine action, and this divine action
means that God is intimately involved in marriage.