5th Sunday Ordinary Time

Marriage Catechesis – Part 2

CCC 1604: God who created man out of love also calls him to love the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love. Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the Creator's eyes. This love, which God blesses, is intended to be fruitful and to be realized in the common work of watching over creation: "and God blessed them, and God said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.'"

CCC 1605: Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: "It is not good that the man should be alone." The       woman, "flesh of his flesh," i.e., his counterpart, his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a "helpmate"; she thus           represents God from whom comes our help. "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they               become one flesh." The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two lives by recalling what the plan of the         Creator had been "in the beginning": "So they are no longer two, but one flesh."

    The Code of Canon law is not exactly a page turner. And while it is available for free on the Vatican website, I doubt too many folks have ever read much of it. Fair enough. If I’d not taken 3 classes in seminary (2 of which were required) and had to occasionally figure out some parish or parishioner's need, I would not spend much time with the code either. That said, as Baptized Catholic Christians, we are all bound to the Code. It helps clarify rights, responsibilities, and communal order for us as members of the Universal Church. Since the Church is a community of persons, we need guiding rules, laws, and norms for our communal relationships. And since Marriage is a fundamental cell of our greater community both in the Church and civilly, the Code speaks about marriage. 

Can. 1055 §1. The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life       and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring, has been raised by Christ     the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized.

    This initial definition of what constitutes marriage is important. It identifies 3 specific characteristics (or “goods”) that make marriage unique among all the many kinds of human relationships. First, covenantal partnership between a man & a woman. This partnership is a chaste fidelity for the whole of each partner’s life. Covenant implies the total, faithful & free gift of each party to the other. Much as God entered a covenant with the Israelites through Moses and us in Christ. It is not merely a civil contract of human making, desire, or design. We discern from our human nature and Natural Law the truth of marriage, rather than writing it for ourselves. Second, “ordered by its nature for the good of the spouses.” Marriage is intended to bless, enhance, gift, grace the spouses. Third, “ordered by its nature to… the procreation & education of offspring.” Of all relationships, marriage is the proper context into which a child should be born, raised, and cared for – and since maternity & paternity never cease, neither can earthly marriage. These are drawn from St Augustine’s reflections on marriage.

Can. 1056 The essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility, which in Christian marriage obtain a special firmness by             reason of the Sacrament.

Can. 1057 §1. The consent of the parties, legitimately manifested between persons qualified by law, makes marriage; no human power is      able to supply this consent.

Can. 1059 Even if only one party is Catholic, the marriage of Catholics is governed not only by divine law but also by canon law…

Nothing Less than saints for the Holy Family of God.

Holy Family, Strengthened by Holy Marriage, Pray for us.

~ Fr Jeremy M. Gries