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The Sacraments of Holy Matrimony
Marriage is a vow or contract before God and humankind that a man and a woman give themselves to one another, cleave to one another, becoming one in the Body of Christ, with procreation as the aim, until death part them. The Sacrament of Matrimony is one of seven sacraments instituted by Christ to be administered through the Catholic Church. Catholic means universal and sacrament derives from the Latin word sacramentum or "sign of the sacred" meaning that the sacraments are instruments of God's saving grace.
The other six sacraments are:
- Baptism: by water, into the Body of Christ, freeing the baptized from original sin.
- Confirmation: confirming your faith; a reiteration of your baptism
- Eucharist: the central liturgy of the Mass, becoming one with the Body and the Blood of Christ
- Penance: through Confession of sins, the penitent reconciles with Christ
- Anointing of the Sick: formerly the Last Rites or Extreme Unction, given when a Christian is ill or in danger of death, strengthens the body and the soul
- Holy Orders: instituted at the Last Supper when Christ ordained His apostles to the Holy Order of the priesthood. This is the only sacrament that is gender specific--males only.
The Sacrament of Marriage in God's Plan
Marriage is a covenant between a man and a woman in which God is the bond, the head of the union. God created man in His own likeness. God is love, thus man is made of God's love. In the beginning, the first man, Adam, was sinless, alone. While Adam was sleeping, God took one of his ribs and fashioned woman, Eve, so that Adam would not be alone. Eve became part of Adam, "flesh of his flesh," an unbreakable union. Eve was not subservient to Adam, Eve was Adam's helper, his companion and helper, as God is our ultimate help. This was the first marriage.
The Celebration of Matrimony
A man and a woman are not free to marry in the Catholic Church unless they are baptized in the Church. The couple can be under no restriction--matrimonial consent must be an act of free will--and cannot be impeded by religious or natural law.
Many couples choose pre-marital counseling in the form of a class called Pre-Cana. Pre-Cana is named for the Bible passage where Jesus turned water into wine and multiplied the food for the guests of the couple who were wedded in Cana. Counseling offers couples a way to get to know each other, to ask questions they haven't asked of each other before, giving the couple tools to work through the ups and downs of married life. It concentrates on interpersonal listening and speaking skills, further defining love and the Sacrament of Matrimony.
Sacramental marriage is celebrated in the public liturgy of the Church. It is a liturgical act. Matrimony enacts certain effects, not only on the couple and their families, but in the Body of Christ as a whole. Once married, a man and a woman have a whole new set of responsibilities, new rights, and duties in the Church with regard to themselves and their children. A new bond has been forged, perpetual, and exclusive, to each other.
This new bond is indissoluble, called to fidelity, and giving of oneself to the other in respect and conjugal love. Conjugal love is the married couple's total commitment to faith and is open to fertility. Open to fertility simply means to procreate naturally, without hindrance from such things as birth control and voluntary sterilization. These choices put the hand of life in our own, not God's hands.
Children are God's gift to marriage, a fulfillment of the spiritual and temporal bond, the marriage contract, the vows before God and man. Being at the service of life, or rather, living life in the service of God is the basic task of marriage. This is the Domestic Church. This is not to say that those married couples who cannot have children, yet are open to the fertility of procreation, cannot have fulfilling lives.
The Domestic Church does not reside just in the four walls of a building. It is built of its people. It is built of its families. The future of the Church lies with its children. This is the crux. Without parents showing the example of a valid, good Christian marriage--and yes, Catholics are Christians--then the foundation of the Faith crumbles. The next generation of Catholics might well lose sight of the basic tenets of the faith. It is in the family that strength lies, witnessing the fullness of the Spirit of God as one. This is what marriage is all about.
The Catholic Catechism: Marriage
Beginner's Guide to a Catholic Marriage
Articles and Reflections About Catholic Marriage