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Maura Rocks
Dr. Murphy
THEO 293
4/28/2014
In the Service of Faith and Promotion of Justice:
The Sacramentality and Social Teaching of Marriage and Family
When studying and exploring the topic of sacramentality in a marriage, one comes to
realize that unless applied to the world in which we live, sacramentality has relevance in the lives
of married couples. Sacramentality offers richness in deepening relationships and it edifies the
way in which couples and families live in the world. One of the many tenants of Catholic Social
Teaching underscores the importance of families in being havens of love and incubators for
social action. I argue that this expression of charity, justice, and mercy, can only be truly
communicated to children from parents who have a sacramental understanding of their union. A
sacramental understanding of marriage, as illuminated through tradition and theology, can both
deepen the bond between partners and foster a socially engaged and self-giving family or
domestic church.
Before we delve into the implications of a sacramental Christian marriage on the live of
family and society, it is important to understand the basics of sacramentality. A sacrament in the
Catholic Church is understood in many ways, but has been most popularly characterized by the
phrase, and outward sign of an inward grace. This phrase needs unpacking. The language of
sacraments relies heavily on words like sign and grace to communicate mysterious realities
about the relationship between God and Gods people. According to Lawler, grace plays an
important role in understanding a sacrament. A sacrament is a prophetic symbol in and through
the Body of Christ, that proclaims, reveals and celebrates the presence and representation of
God, also known as grace.1 To Cooke, on the other hand, sacraments are sacred signs, instituted
1 Lawler, Michael G. Marriage and Sacrament: A Theology of Christian Marriage. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1993. Print. p. 14.

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by Christ, to give grace.2 In both understandings of sacrament, the authors highlight the role that
Christ plays in communicating grace through earthly means particularly through signs that
speak to a deeper, otherworldly significance and that illuminate the grace received through the
sacramental experience. The Catholic Catechism also states that sacraments are efficacious
because they actually bring about what they symbolize, in other words, in them Christ Himself
is at work: it is He who baptizes, He who acts in His sacraments in order to communicate the
grace that each sacrament signifies.3 Sacraments will forever remain a mystery rooted in the
power of the Holy Spirit and the loving and saving power of Christ. They are essential to
Christianity because they serve as lifelines between the natural and the divine. They establish an
objective union with God, and are pathways to God.
When discussing these pathways to God, the Catholic Church recognizes seven sacraments, one
of them being the sacrament of holy matrimony. Marriage was not always a sacrament, and it is
unique among the seven because it is the only sacrament in which a natural institution was
elevated to the dignity of a sacrament.4 The Council of Florence established the sacramentality
of marriage in 1439 after much theological and spiritual debate.5 The sacramentality of marriage
lies in the dual meaning behind a couples love and the grace that is bestowed upon a couple by
the Holy Spirit during a nuptial blessing. God and Christ, from the first moments, are present as

2 Cooke, Bernard. "Christian Marriage: Basic Sacrament." Perspectives on Marriage: A Reader. By Kieran Scott and Michael Warren. New
York ; Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. 47-58. Print. p. 52

3 CCC, 1127.
4 Gerke, Leonard F. Christian Marriage: A Permanent Sacrament. Washington: Catholic U of America, 1965. Print. p. 28
5 Martos, Joseph. "Marriage in the Western Churches." Perspectives on Marriage: A Reader. By Kieran Scott and Michael Warren. New
York ; Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001. 47-58. Print. p. 44

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partner in the marriage. A Christian marriage is not undertaken without an understanding of
Gods role in the marriage. God is present in the nuptial blessing as the Holy Spirit, and the
message of Christs self gift and the graces of God underlie the entire marriage. These divine
foundations mirror the foundational level in a sacramental marriage, namely the loving
communion for the whole of life between a loving couple who are members of Christs
Church.6 The sacramental level of a Christian marriage represents the dual nature of meaning, as
the love of a couple represents the love between Christ and his Church.7
The Holy Spirit is an essential component to a sacramental Christian marriage, as the Holy Spirit
is present in the nuptial blessing and throughout the covenant relationship. The presence of the
Holy Spirit has been present primordially in the lives of human beings since the Genesis story
when God breathed life into humanity. The Holy Spirit unifies a couple with an indissoluble
nuptial bond.8 The gravity and importance of such a bond is of the utmost as God has
consecrated the union. The sacramentality of marriage can only understood though this
consecration: when the breath of the Holy Spirit blesses a couples love.9
The sacramental realities of Christian marriage impact the entire notion of marriage to a couple.
As Christ loves his Church, a couple loves each other unceasingly, eternally, and faithfully.
Because of this love rooted in Christs eternal self-sacrifice, a couple in a sacramental marriage is
attempts to mirror that love, as Jesus did, until death separates them. 10 This eternal love is met
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
8 Elliott, Peter J. What God Has Joined: The Sacramentality of Marriage. New York: Alba House, 1990. Print. p. 147
9 Elliott, 151.
10 Theology of the Sacrament of Marriage. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.

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with a loving partnership, rooted in self gift to each other and in service to God and the
people in their lives.11 Marriage is discussed in many different passage in the Bible, but the
passage that speaks most of marriage as self gift is in Ephesians: Be subject to one another out
of reverence for Christ. In this passage, Paul speak of the way that Christ has given himself
fully to those he loves and has fulfilled the promises made at the last supper, This is my body
given for you.12 This passage speaks of the self-giving and self-emptying love Christ had for the
world and encourages couples to do the same for each other and then for the world. We learn
that the kenotic, self-giving nature of marriage is one that gives in the most foundational of ways,
mirroring that of Jesuss death and resurrection.
This sense of self-giving love is also understood to be mutual love, one that dies to the more
individualistic, less unrelated-to-another, way of life. 13 The theology behind a sacramental
marriage is so sacred and deeply rooted in an unmatched divine love, and it calls individuals to
change themselves to be better for their spouse and for the rest of the world. Cooke writes that
this sense of self-gift also allows someone to understand what it feels like to be truly loved by
another individual and ultimately believe that they are important enough to be loved by
God.14 The idea of a Christian marriage always comes back to sacrament. How do couples give
graces to each other and how do they reflect the graces that God has given them? How do they
mirror the love of Christ for His Church or YHWHs love for Israel? This sacramental challenge
to live kenotically is the foundation for much of Christian marriage. Children, service, and
11 Lawler, 23
12 Cooke, 56
13 Ibid.
14 Cooke, 57

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justice stem from this challenge that Christian couples face. What a beautiful and foundational
concept. It is truly and amazing and counter-cultural idea in an age of extreme individualism.
As discussed, the sacramentality of a Christian marriage translates into a social sacrament,
through a couples care for the community around them and more specifically through family
life.15 The family reveals marriage as [this] social sacrament, and provides the human
dimension of the Church as a visible society.16 The Church is an institution called to servant
leadership and couples are called to the same mutual self-giving. Families, it follows, become
small domestic church[es], that serve society together with mutual love and hope.17 In the
Apostolic Exhortation, Familiaris Consortio, Saint Pope John II highlighted the roles of a family
as a domestic church: 1. forming a community of persons; 2. serving life; 3. participating in the
development of society; and 4. Sharing in the life and mission of the Church.18 These roles are
important to the role that a family plays in the greater context of society. The first two missions
of the family are internal matters, rooted in the sacredness of the home and the love that a family
shares within the walls of its home. Elliott asserts that the sacrament of Christian marriage
makes the family into a sacrament, as a complex of human actions and relationships in which
Christ is at work.19 Once the internal community is established and fostered, a family is better
able to serve the world fully and kenotically. The sacramentality of marriage is still alive in the

15 Elliott, 222
16 Elliott, 223
17 Elliott, 224
18 Familiaris Consortio.
19 Elliott, 228

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development of a family, as parents must challenge themselves to give themselves fully to the
establishment and fostering of their domestic church.
Just as the sacrament of marriage is a sign of Gods love and grace, married couples must lean
and decide the sign that their marriage will give to a world that is sinful, broken, and divided
by racism, sexism, and classism. They must serve as bearers of light and love in a broken world.
There is a Christian call of every person not to serve but to serve (Mark 10:45), and no
Christian, couple or church, can be anything less than servants for others, and no Christian
family can be anything less than a domestic church.20 If married couples are graced with the
gift of children, they are expected to raise them in the Catholic faith and to teach them the
importance of service, justice, and love. Families have the capacity to be havens for social
justice and hearths of love, and can, in their own small way, work to better the world in which
they live. The potential for families to promote social justice is exponential, as the foundation of
that family is rooted in a sacramental reality: Christs self gift that becomes the self gift of a
couple to each other, to their children, and to the greater community.
Saint Pope John Paul II once said, The future of humanity passes through the family.21 Pope
Francis has been quoted, The family, whether we like it or not, is the foundation, and it is a
remedy against social fragmentation.22 A Christian family has great capacity for good in this
world, as it is a place where love and self-gift are the cornerstones of the home. When I reflect on
20 Lawler, 24
21 Trujillo, Alfonso Lopez. The Family: Gift and Commitment Hope for Humanity. Vatican City: Pontifical Council for the Family, 1997.
Print.

22 "Interview with Pope Francis for the Radio of the Archdiocese of Rio ("Radio Catedral" Studios - Rio De Janeiro, 27 July 2013)." Vatican.
N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Apr. 2014.

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the extensive work that has been done on the study of Christian marriage, sacramentality, and the
importance of family, I wonder how the contemporary world might respond. This way of life,
this mutual self-gift is so different than the world in which we live. Today, marriage and family
life is becoming increasingly unpopular; the world of the 21st century seeks marriage through a
very new and very jaded lens. Pope Francis, however, has offered the world a sense of hope in
his statements on marriage and family. He has reignited the spark of sacramental marriages and
has reminded the world of the Holy Spirits breath that moves within a couples loving union. At
World Youth Day in Brazil, Pope Francis said,
"Today, there are those who say that marriage is out of fashion... They say that it is not
worth making a life-long commitment, making a definitive decision, for ever, because
we do not know what tomorrow will bring. I ask you, instead, to be revolutionaries, I ask
you to swim against the tide; yes, I am asking you to rebel against this culture that sees
everything as temporary and that ultimately believes you are incapable of responsibility,
that believes you are incapable of true love."23
The power of love and the power of kenotic self-gift make a Christian marriage the unique and
beautifully counter-cultural sacrament infused with the breath of the Holy Spirit. The Christian
family has the ability to foster this sense of service, charity, and love and to share these virtues
with the world, and in doing so, make the world a better, more loving, and more just place.

23 "Meeting with the Volunteers of the 28th WYD at the Pavillon 5 of the Rio Center (Rio De Janeiro, 28 July 2013)." Vatican. N.p., n.d.
Web. 27 Apr. 2014.