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The teachings of the Catholic Church on marriage might be summarized in the following points:
- Marriage is the sacrament in which a baptized man and woman vow to belong to each other in a permanent, exclusive, sexual partnership of loving mutual care, concern and shared responsibility, in the hope of having children and bringing up a family (CCC 1601).
- The mystery of grace that is signified and brought about in the sacrament of Marriage is a sharing in the Spirit by which the two partners grow in mutual love and are enabled to face together the problems of married life and to make of their family an image of the Church united in charity (1641).
- Marriage cannot normally be repeated while both partners are alive; for their consecration to each other is permanent. A civil divorce does not dissolve the valid marriage of baptized persons (1644).
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Weekly Meditation: Vowed Fidelity to One Another
The Catholic Church teaches that marriage is a permanent and lifelong union between a man and a woman. It’s something done for the benefit of each person, but it’s also directed to the common good of the human community. The sacrament of marriage takes this human commitment and makes it the focus of God’s ongoing renewal of human life through the ministry of Christ and Christ’s body, the Church. When two Christians give their lives to one another, they become a living example of how God is redeeming the world. The love that grows in marriage shows us the love that God has for the whole world.- Who are the happiest married couples you've known? Think about how their love affected those in their lives: their kids, their neighbors, their coworkers. Take a minute to recognize and honor the active, living presence of God in and through these couples.
The sacrament of marriage is how women and men follow Jesus in the context of world and family. The married life is a source of God’s gift of friendship and blessing, not just for its own sake, but for the sake of the world. Marriage is fruitful: it generates love and reconciliation and peace and growth. It does this by providing daily opportunities for pleasure, for gratitude, for enjoyment; but also opportunities for conflict, suffering, and hard work. As a way of following Jesus, marriage invites us to participate in Christ’s journey to the cross for the sake of our resurrection. Marriage makes us better people, not just in the home, but out in the world.
- (If you're married) Take another minute and think about who you were when you got married. Was it a year ago? Five years? Fifteen? How have you and your spouse changed over the span of your marriage? How would your identity today be different if you had never married?
(If you're unmarried) Take another minute and consider how your life would be effected if you were sharing it completely with another person? What would change? What would be the same? In what ways would you be invited to grow?
Marriage is the life that follows when two people live in the vows of lifelong fidelity that they promised one another. The joys and sufferings of marriage, when they take place within personal and permanent fidelity, become a clear image of how God restores creation. In this way, married people again are an icon of God's faithfulness to his people and Christ's love for his church. The sacrament of marriage comes in to being when Christ's own faithfulness is recognized and celebrated within the faithfulness of the spouses.
- In the fifth chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, St. Paul draws a strong connection between the relationship of spouses and the relationship of Christ and the Church. Becoming a Christian, and especially a Catholic, is much like getting married. You're joining yourself to the Church by promising to be faithful to its common life, and the Church itself is joined to Christ through his promise of absolute fidelity. Take a final minute to take stock of God's faithfulness to you and to the Church, turning your thoughts into prayers of gratitude and petition.