I continue to read the USCCB’s pastoral letter, Marriage: Love and Life in the Divine Plan. I’d like to transcribe a lengthier section of that letter here, a section that beautifully describes the Church’s teaching on the sacramentality of Christian marriage.
“Christian spouses are called to this imitation of Christ, an imitation that is possible only because, in the Sacrament of Marriage, the couple receives a participation in his love. As a sacrament, marriage signifies and makes present in the couple Christ’s total self-gift of love. Their mutual gift of self, conferred in their promises of fidelity and love to the end, becomes a participation in the love to the end by which Christ gave himself to the Church as to a Spouse (see Jn 13: 1).
“The baptized spouses are the ministers of the Sacrament of Matrimony. In addition, for marriages that are celebrated within the Latin Catholic Church, canonical form requires, among other things, that an authorized bishop, priest, or deacon ask for and receive the spouses’ consent as the Church’s official witness of the marriage celebration. For marriages of members of the Eastern Catholic Churches, the assistance and blessing of an authorized bishop or priest is required. The Holy Spirit binds the spouses together through their exchange of promises in a bond of love and fidelity unto death. Their marriage covenant becomes a participation in the unbreakable covenant between Christ the Bridegroom and his Bride, the Church. The same love that defines the Church now defines the communion between the two spouses: “authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is directed and enriched by the redemptive power of Christ and the salvific action of the church.”
“When Christian couples receive the grace of the Sacrament of Matrimony, Christ dwells with them, gives them strength to take up their crosses and so follow him, to rise again after they have fallen, to forgive one another, to bear one another’s burdens, to be “subject to one another out of reverence for Christ,” and to love one another with supernatural, tender and fruitful love.”
“By the power of the Holy Spirit, spouses become willing to do the acts and courtesies of love toward each other, regardless of the feelings of the moment…… The imitation of the love of Christ for the Church also calls for a healing in the relationship between man and woman. This should not be a one-sided subjection of the wife to the husband, but rather a mutual subjection of husband and wife.”
Maybe a bit theologically heady, but I think worth our evening meditation.
