A very constant image present throughout the whole History of Salvation in Sacred Scripture is the reality of “Marriage.” From the beginning the union between man and woman reveals the relationship of God with his people. Prophets and the history of Israel show us God as the groom and the people as the bride he rescues and saves. In the New Testament the image of marriage is clearer and more direct as in the wedding in Cana, or Saint Paul’s exhortation, “Husband, love your wife, as Christ loves his Church”, or at the end of the book of Revelation where the Glory of God is present in
the Wedding of the Lamb.
The Church today brings us this sacred reality of marriage in our lives and society. The Church needs holy marriages to build and strengthen the Christian family so they will continue to live and practice Christian values.
Pope Benedict XVI spoke recently on September 16, 2021, defending the sacredness of marriage that has been under evil attack. He emphasized that the basic community has never questioned the fact that the existence of the human being in its male and female form is ordered to procreation, “as well as the fact that the community of male and female and openness to the transmission of life determines the essence of what is called marriage.”
With Marriage the church encourages and guides the Christian family to the service of love. Through such service, the family imitates and relives the “self-giving and sacrificial love that the Lord Jesus has for the entire human race.”
Pope Benedict urges that it “never be forgotten that the word of God is at the very origin of marriage (cf. Gn 2:24) and that Jesus himself made marriage one of the institutions of his kingdom (cf. Mt 19:4-8).” Jesus elevated marriage “to the dignity of a sacrament that was inscribed in human nature from the beginning.”
He says that “in the face of widespread confusion” about love’s meaning, along with “the rise of ways of thinking which trivialize the human body and sexual differentiation,” God’s word “reaffirms the original goodness of the human being, created as man and woman, and called to a love which is faithful, reciprocal and fruitful.”
Let us remember:
The Sacrament Holy Matrimony is one of the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church. Gen 1:26-27
Both parties must be free to marry: i.e., there is no constraint or impediment arising from any natural or ecclesiastical law. CCC 1625; CIC 1057, 1071
Reception of the sacrament of Penance is encouraged as part of the marriage preparation for the couple. CCC 1622; FC 67
Two distinctive graces of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony are the love of spouse and the love of children.
Marriage is indissoluble before the eyes of the Church. CCC 1644; Mt 19:6; FC 19
The intimate union of marriage, as a mutual self-giving of two persons, and for the good of children, demand total fidelity from the spouses and requires an unbreakable union between them. GS 48, 1
May the Lord and his Blessed Mother constantly bless every marriage in our community and keep you together in peace, true love, and holy grace.
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