Marriage
Holy Orders
Marriage
“Holy Orders and Matrimony are directed towards the salvation of others; if they contribute as well to personal salvation, it is through service to others that they do so. They confer a particular mission in the Church and serve to build up the People of God” (CCC 1534).
The Sacraments of Vocation: Marriage
“Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).
“Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready … and the angel said … ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb’” (Revelation 19:7,9).
“God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him” (1 John 4:16b).
“The spouses, as ministers of Christ’s grace, mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church” (CCC 1623).
Throughout the whole of Scripture from beginning to end, images, allusions, visions, instructions and descriptions of marriage remain a recurring theme. Through the sacrament of marriage, two people who already share in the mission of Christ by their Baptism and Confirmation now become consecrated for a particular service for the People of God. If every sacrament has a visible sign which it uses to convey the presence and grace of God, then the sacramental sign of marriage is … the couple itself! Not the rings, not the wedding ceremony or the candles or traditional clothing or music – not even the priest who presides at the liturgy: the man and woman who marry signify the truth of a relationship that unites human and divine love together.
To declare, as the Church has, that marriage is a sacrament means that it is more than just beautiful or joyful, and even more than simply a loving, permanent relationship. A sacramental marriage has Jesus Christ at its heart, and the married couple is quite consciously aware of Christ’s presence in the life of their marriage.
The Catholic Church believes, as Scripture teaches us, that sacramental marriage is permanent and indissoluble. So how do Catholics get annulments? Isn’t that just a way to sneak out the back door of the indissoluble bond? Actually, quite the opposite: because marriage, as a sacrament, is by very definition a sign of God’s presence, the Church at times carefully decides whether a sacramental marriage has existed, not by changing its teaching, but by examining the facts. Did this marriage satisfy the requirements of a lifelong Christian covenant bond between two people sharing in God’s faithfulness? If not, then the marriage can be “annulled,” which declares that it never existed as a sacramental union. Annulment is a Church procedure separate from civil divorce.
Marriage, as do all the sacraments, combines God’s generous and loving grace at work in our lives with our response to that grace. The celebration of the sacrament of marriage may center around a couple’s wedding day, but the couple truly lives out that sacrament every day of their marriage, and so becomes a continuing sign of God’s presence to their wider community.
CONTACT US:
- For information on our marriage preparation program, contact Syliva and John Dillion at sdillon@nd.edu or Darrell Paulsen at dpaulse1@nd.edu
- For more information on Sacramental Preparation at ND, click here
