For what the Sacrament of Marriage – Part I
For the next few days, as our preparation for the Congress of Divine Mercy, I want to talk about the Family and the meaning of the sacrament of marriage. And to talk about this sacrament, we must have faith. I often talk to my colleagues priests who, visit families, and they notice that more and more often they meet people who live together without a church marriage. To put it in church slang – there are no obstacles to get married in Church, because none of them are related to the first church marriage, perpetual vows or accepted priesthood ordinations. Very often the priest's first reaction is: "I told them to get married because they have no obstacles."
I just think that first, the lack of obstacles is still not a reason to get married, and second, they have one major obstacle - lack of faith. Faith, not that to believe that God exists, but faith that relies on trusting Jesus. Therefore, everything what I will say is understandable only with faith.
I reached for a Gospel text that is read very often at weddings and almost everyone wants to have it read: the miracle at Cana in Galilee. This text shows well the understanding of what marriage is, including marriage as a sacrament, and from where it comes as a sacrament. It was Jesus who instituted marriage as a sacrament, the Catechism will say that he elevated it to the dignity of a sacrament. I want to highlight a few moments in this text. First of all, it is important that this is the first sign that Jesus ever performed, and it took place at a wedding. This is proof of the importance of human love, human marriage for God. In God's eyes, it is a great event in which He wants to participate. God allows himself to be invited to the center of love between a man and a woman. God incarnate in Jesus Christ goes to the wedding - this shows all our hopes and all God's hopes related to marriage, love, man, woman. These hopes are inscribed in the creation of man.
I remember when we studied the oldest Christian sarcophagi during the Christian archeology class. One of them, beautiful, is in the Vatican Museum. It is called a dogmatic sarcophagus, and the name comes from the fact that it is the first representation of the Holy Trinity in the history of the Church. The Three Divine Persons create man, but they create him in such a way that they lead out Eve from Adam's side. The creation of man is the creation of the first human couple, the first human community.
Here is God, who is one but a community of Persons, who brings to life in his image and likeness a community of man and woman: a first marriage that will also be fruitful through its unity. This is something amazing. Philosophers and various theologians have puzzled over the centuries about what is the likeness of man to God. We know we are created in His image and likeness, but what is that about? Ultimately, it is that we are all called to love and that we cannot fulfill ourselves and be fulfilled except in love. God in his unity is a community of Persons - man is called to live in a community of persons. There is no more beautiful expression of who God is than a marriage that also becomes a family.
And there is nothing more beautiful than the love between a man and a woman - a love that also becomes fertile, becomes the source of new life. It's just amazing! As described in the Book of Genesis, God created man and woman and actually created them for the love that is in Him, for a love that not only imitates His love, but also draws from Him.
Do not believe people who say that the Church does not value human love, that the Bible does not understand it. The Bible is full of wonder over human love. There is the cry in it that sounded when God brought Eve to Adam: "This is the one!” God introduced him to all the creatures beforehand, but Adam found no partner for himself. Only when a woman comes does she exclaim: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh“ (cf. Gen 2:23). This feeling of oneness is amazing. Read the Song of Songs. It is a book in the Bible in which the word "God" is never mentioned, but how beautiful is the description of a woman ... In God’s Word is a fascination of human love. This is God's first word about man. Hence the presence of Jesus Christ at the wedding in Cana in Galilee.
There is no tension between God and love between people. There is no contradiction here. This is some nonsense when someone sets God on one side and love between a man and a woman on the other. There is no contradiction, even if this love is not perfect. Once, during a priestly retreat, one of the priests asked: “He and she come to me and I see that they understand nothing of the sacrament of marriage, of the sacramentality of marriage and of faith in general. Under what conditions can I throw them out from the office?” This is not funny? I was not laughing because I thought to myself: "Man, you have an amazing chance to tell them about faith in Jesus Christ, starting precisely from this love that is between them and which is so amazing. You can tell them: you may not understand anything about the Church, but you know one thing, that you love one another, and this love between you, that is God.”
This is what Pope Francis constantly talks about, and we in the Church are scandalized by how he says it. Some argue that the pope is actually promoting irregularities in the Church. No, he doesn't promote anything like that. The Pope is a man of faith, and he believes in the gospel about marriage, and he continues to show it as a destination. It doesn't have to be that you have everything at once. You can grow on this, and as you grow, then what is between you and the other person is love. I repeat there is no dispute, tension and war between God and human love.
The relationship between Adam and Eve was perfect. There is a beautiful passage in the Book of Genesis: “The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame" (cf. Gen 2:25). Saint Pope John Paul II wrote beautifully about it, that the shame is a defensive reaction. I don't undress in front of someone that I'm not sure because I don't know what that person will do when sees me naked. But the first people had no fear of themselves, and therefore, despite their nakedness, they felt no shame. There was no fear between them. Wouldn't you like that? There is only one event between us and them which is called "sin."
Until Tomorrow
fr. george