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Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults
1. We have
analyzed the Letter to the Ephesians, especially the passage of 5:21-33, from
the point of view of the sacramentality of marriage. Now we shall examine the
same text in the perspective of the words of the Gospel.
Christ's words to the Pharisees (cf. Mt 19) refer to marriage as a sacrament,
that is, to the primordial revelation of God's salvific will and deed at the
beginning, in the very mystery of creation. In virtue of that salvific will and
deed of God, man and woman, joining together in such a way as to become "one
flesh" (Gn 2:24), were at the same time destined to be united "in truth and
love" as children of God (cf. Gaudium et Spes 24), adopted children in
the only-begotten Son, beloved from all eternity. The words of Christ are
directed to this unity and toward this communion of persons, in the likeness of
the union of the divine persons (cf. Gaudium et Spes 24). His words refer
to marriage as the primordial sacrament and at the same time confirm that
sacrament on the basis of the mystery of redemption. In fact, the original
"unity in the body" of man and woman does not cease to mold the history of man
on earth, even though it has lost the clarity of the sacrament, of the sign of
salvation, which it possessed at the beginning.
2. If Christ, in the presence of those with whom he was conversing, in the
Gospels of Matthew and Mark (cf. Mt 19; Mk 10), confirms marriage as a sacrament
instituted by the Creator at the beginning—if in conformity with this he
insisted on its indissolubility—he thereby opens marriage to the salvific action
of God, to the forces which flow from the redemption of the body, and which help
to overcome the consequences of sin and to constitute the unity of man and woman
according to the eternal plan of the Creator. The salvific action which derives
from the mystery of redemption assumes in itself the original sanctifying action
of God in the mystery of creation.
3. The words of the Gospel of Matthew (cf. Mt 19:3-9; Mk 10:2-12), have at the
same time a very expressive ethical eloquence. These words confirm—on the basis
of the mystery of redemption—the primordial sacrament, and at the same time,
they establish an adequate ethos which in our previous reflections we have
called the ethos of redemption. The evangelical and Christian ethos, in its
theological essence, is the ethos of redemption. Certainly, for that ethos we
can find a rational interpretation, a philosophical interpretation of a
personalistic character; however, in its theological essence, it is an ethos of
redemption, rather, an ethos of the redemption of the body. Redemption
becomes at the same time the basis for understanding the particular dignity of
the human body, rooted in the personal dignity of the man and the woman. The
reason of this dignity lies at the root of the indissolubility of the conjugal
covenant.
4. Christ refers to the indissoluble character of marriage as a primordial
sacrament, and, confirming this sacrament on the basis of the mystery of
redemption, he simultaneously draws conclusions of an ethical nature: "Whoever
divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she
divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery" (Mk 10:11-12;
cf. Mt 19:9). It can be said that in this way redemption is given to man as a
grace of the new covenant with God in Christ—and at the same time it is assigned
to him as an ethos, as the form of the morality corresponding to God's action in
the mystery of redemption. If marriage as a sacrament is an effective sign of
God's salvific action "from the beginning", at the same time—in the light of
Christ's words which are being considered here—this sacrament constitutes also
an exhortation addressed to man, male and female, so that they may participate
consciously in the redemption of the body.
5. The ethical dimension of the redemption of the body is delineated in an
especially profound way when we meditate on Christ's words in the Sermon on the
Mount in regard to the commandment, "You shall not commit adultery." "You have
heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that
everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart" (Mt 5:27-28). We have previously given an ample commentary on this
statement of Christ in the conviction that it has a fundamental significance for
the whole theology of the body, especially in the dimension of historical man.
Although these words do not refer directly and immediately to marriage as a
sacrament, it is impossible to separate them from the whole sacramental
substratum. As far as concerns the conjugal pact, the existence of man as male
and female is placed in that substratum, both in the original context of the
mystery of creation and then, later, in the context of the mystery of
redemption. This sacramental substratum always regards individual persons. It
penetrates into that which man and woman are (or rather, into who man and woman
are) in their original dignity of image and likeness of God by reason of
creation, and at the same time, in the same dignity inherited in spite of sin
and again continually "assigned" to man as a duty through the reality of the
redemption.
6. Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, gives his own interpretation of the
commandment, "You shall not commit adultery"—an interpretation constitutes a new
ethos—with the same lapidary words he assigns as a duty to every man the dignity
of every woman: and simultaneously (even though this can be deduced from the
text only in an indirect way), he also assigns to every woman the dignity of
every man.(1) Finally he assigns to every one—both to man and woman—their own
dignity, in a certain sense, the sacrum of the person. This is in consideration
of their femininity or masculinity, in consideration of the body. It is not
difficult to see that Christ's words in the Sermon on the Mount regard the
ethos. At the same time, it is not difficult to affirm after deeper reflection
that these words flow from the very profundity of the redemption of the body.
Although they do not refer directly to marriage as a sacrament, it is not
difficult to observe that they achieve their proper and full significance in
relationship with the sacrament, whether that primordial sacrament which is
united with the mystery of creation, or that in which historical man, after sin
and because of his hereditary sinfulness, should find again the dignity and
holiness of the conjugal union in the body, on the basis of the mystery of
redemption.
7. In the Sermon on the Mount—as also in the conversation with the Pharisees on
the indissolubility of marriage—Christ speaks from the depths of that divine
mystery. At the same time he enters into the depths of the human mystery. For
that reason he mentions the heart, that intimate place in which there struggle
struggle in man good and evil, sin and justice, concupiscence and holiness.
Speaking of concupiscence (of the lustful look: cf. Mt 5:28), Christ made his
hearers aware that everyone bears within himself, together with the mystery of
sin, the interior dimension "of the man of concupiscence." This is three-fold:
"the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes and the pride of
life" (1 Jn 2:16).
It is precisely to this man of concupiscence that there is given in marriage the
sacrament of redemption as a grace and a sign of the covenant with God—and it is
assigned to him as an ethos. Simultaneously, in regard to marriage as a
sacrament, it is assigned as an ethos to every man, male and female. It is
assigned to his heart, to his conscience, to his looks, and to his behavior.
According to Christ's words (cf. Mt 19:4), marriage is a sacrament from the very
beginning. At the same time, on the basis of man's historic sinfulness, it is a
sacrament arising from the mystery of the redemption of the body.
NOTE
1. The text of St. Mark which speaks of the indissolubility of marriage clearly states that the woman also becomes a subject of adultery when she divorces her husband and marries another (cf. Mk 10:12).
Source: L'Osservatore Romano
102. Marriage Sacrament an Effective Sign of God's Saving Power - 12.1.1982