Lesson 37
Why Is Marriage So Vital To Our Survival?
Welcome back to the Lenten Lessons on the Sacraments. Today we turn to the Sacrament of Marriage, Matrimony, our seventh and final sacrament.
I don’t know who wrote it or said it, but I do believe it is true: “as Marriage goes, so goes the Church, and as the Church goes, so goes society.” Saint John Paul II wrote: “As the family goes, so goes the nation, and so goes the whole world in which we live.” – St. John Paul II
The Sacrament of Marriage is fundamentally important for the thriving of the human race, and not only from the Catholic perspective, but from the secular and sociological perspective of marriage and human flourishing. There are many studies on the subject, but children do best and grow up to be happy and productive human beings and citizens, when they are raised in peaceful, loving and stable families, with their biological mother and father who love each other and are faithful to each other. And that is just what the Church has to offer in the sacrament of Marriage: the grace to have a stable marriage, if you are willing to accept that grace.
So when was this Sacrament instituted by Christ? Since the natural institution of marriage predates the life of Christ – in fact, it goes all the way back to Adam and Eve — the moment of institution of the Sacrament of Marriage is subject to debate, but in general, most knowledgeable people see Our Lord’s presence, early in his ministry at the Wedding at Cana, as significant. We read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
1613 On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign – at his mother’s request – during a wedding feast. The Church attaches great importance to Jesus’ presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ’s presence.
As for the Minister of the Sacrament of Marriage, it depends if you are practicing the Catholic faith in the Latin Rite or Eastern Rites. 99% of Catholics in the world are in the Latin Rite. So the Catechism points out:
1623 In the Latin Church, it is ordinarily understood that the spouses, as ministers of Christ’s grace, mutually confer upon each other the sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church. In the Eastern liturgies the minister of this sacrament (which is called “Crowning”) is the priest or bishop who, after receiving the mutual consent of the spouses, successively crowns the bridegroom and the bride as a sign of the marriage covenant.
So tune in every day of Lent to learn more about your Catholic faith, because if you Learn it, then you can Live it; and if you Live it, you will Love it; and if you Love it, you will never Leave it!
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