Sacraments of Vocation: The Beauty of Holy Matrimony

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!