Theological Foundations of Marriage

Development of doctrines in Christian traditions

A. Marriage in Genesis

The two inspired accounts of creation in Genesis provide a firm basis for understanding
man and woman and their conjugal union. In the priestly account (cf. Gn 1:1-24a), man is
created last as the summit of creation, with dominion over all creatures. “God created man
in His image. . . male and female He created them,” and blessed them saying “Be fertile and
multiply, fill the earth and subdue it” (Gn 1:27f). Thus, marriage has the social purpose of
propagating the human race by sharing in God’s own creativity (cf. CCC 1604).

The second, creation account focuses more specifically on the creation of man, who is made
complete only by the creation of woman. It is not good for man to be alone. I will make a
suitable partner for him . . . that is why a man leaves hi“s father and mother and clings to
his wife, and the two of them become one body” (Gn 2:18, 24). This expresses
the personal purpose of marriage as the mutual love, support, and unity of the couple (cf.
CCC 1605).

1. One “Body” (or “Flesh”)

For the Hebrew author of Genesis, this meant not just physical unity, but the unity of two
persons in all their basic human levels __ physical, psychological, and spiritual, or body,
mind, and heart or spirit. This unity does not mean losing one’s own identity by merging
with another into one personality, nor yielding to domination by the other. Rather it is “the
intimate partnership of life and love” (GS 48) in which the couple freely are present to, think
about, care for, and enter into, each other. Their thoughts, ideals, hopes and destinies become
intertwined.

2. “Become”
“To become” implies a life-long process (only begun on their wedding day) of the gradual
transformation of an “I” and a “Thou” into a “We.” The essential condition for this “becoming
one body” is the basic equality of male and female, asserted in the creation account. The
unity and equality in marriage is such that both partners are even included under the one
name, “man.” “When God created man, . . . He created them male and female . . . He blessed
them and named them ‘man’ ” (Gn 5:1f).
.

B. Failure in Conjugal Unity/Equality

But human history presents one long account of failing to live up to this creation ideal of
“becoming one body.” Genesis 3 sketches the origin of sin and its basic consequences in
human marriage. It is sin, not God’s plan, that changes marriage from conjugal union of
equal partners into mutual accusation and domination of one by the other. “God said to the
woman: ‘Your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master’ ” (Gn 3:16).
Thus, we have the start of the sad history of infidelity, adultery, divorce, broken families,
and all kinds of sexual disorders that destroy human dignity (cf. CCC 1606-8).

C. Marriage in God’s Redemptive Plan

God, however, ever faithful to His covenant of love, included marriage and family in
His redemptive plan. The Old Testament prophets, by using marriage as a symbol of God’s
covenant with His Chosen People, had already pictured marriage as a covenant which
should imitate God’s own fidelity (cf. Hos 2:21f; Is 54:4-6, 10; 62:4-5; Ez 16:8-14, 60-
63). “You must not break faith with the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord,
the God of Israel” (Mal 2:15f; cf. CCC 1609-11). But it was only through Jesus Christ that the
“covenant of human love,” symbol of God’s love for his people in creation, could be raised to
become the sacrament of the “new covenant of Christ’s redemptive love” with His people, the
Church.

1. The New Covenant

In Jesus Christ, God’s covenant with His people was brought to unsurpassable heights (cf.
CCC 1612-15). “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son” (Jn 3:16).
• Jesus is ‘God’s Covenant-with-His-people’ in person: God and man united in one person.
• He is God’s perfect Self-gift to man, and man’s loving response to God.
• In Jesus, the new Adam, God has redeemed all of us, members of the first Adam’s race.
• In Jesus, “we were all baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12:13), all “members of Christ” who
cleansed his people “in the bath of water by the power of the word ” (Eph 5:26).
Thus, Jesus is the Bridegroom of God’s New Covenant People who are invited to share the
wedding feast in God’s Kingdom (Mt 22:2ff).
2. Marriage, Image of the New Covenant
Marriage in the New Covenant, then, can properly be understood only in terms of Christ’s
saving work how Jesus loves his people, the Church, and gives himself up for her (cf. Eph
5:25). Jesus’ own teaching on marriage went back to God’s original creative ideal of man
and woman becoming “one body” (cf. Mt 19:3-9; CCC 1616-17).
In and with Jesus, God fulfilled what He had promised through the prophets: “I will give you
a new heart and place a new spirit within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts
and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my
statutes” (Ez 36:26f).
. John Paul II develops this basic truth in focusing on one effect of the Sacrament of
Marriage:
Christ renews the first plan that the Creator had inscribed in the hearts of man and woman,
and in the celebration of the Sacrament of Matrimony offers “a new heart”: thus the couple
are not only able to overcome “hardness of heart,” but also and above all they are able to
share the full and definitive love of Christ, the new and eternal Covenant made flesh (FC
20).

3. New Testament Ground

This understanding of Christ’s teaching on marriage as a new “covenant of love” is
confirmed in the famous text from Ephesians (cf. 5:21-33; CCC 1616-17). The key message
is: the covenant between man and woman is seen as the image of the covenant
between Christ and the Church. Husbands and wives, therefore, should love and act toward
each other as Christ loves and treats us, his Church. Hence, marriage partners are
admonished: “Defer to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21). All domination by
one partner over the other is thus directly rejected.
Moreover, contrary to a common misreading, this mutual giving way to one another is
supported, not denied, by “the husband is head of his wife” (Eph 5:23. So Christ showed he
is head of the Church in that he “loved the Church and gave himself up for her” (Eph 5:25).
. The mutual “giving way to one another” is precisely “out of reverence for Christ.” The
profound basis for this mutual “giving way” is the incredible truth of Revelation that the
marriage covenant between man and woman is “a great mystery foreshadowing” of the
covenant between Christ and the Church (Eph 5:32). Christ’s covenant is clearly one of pure
love and self-sacrifice. Therefore, “out of reverence for Christ,” whose covenant with the
Church is symbolized in the marriage covenant of man and woman, “each one of you should
love his wife as himself, the wife for her part showing respect for her husband” (Eph 5:33).

II. THE THREE GOODS OF MARRIAGE

St. Augustine spoke of the three goods or values of marriage as offspring, mutual
love/fidelity, and the sacrament. The three "bona" are essential properties which
distinguish the marital covenant from any other type of relationship between two persons.
A. Marriage as Sacrament("bonum sacramenti")
Catholic tradition has recognized “marriage of the baptized is one of the seven sacraments
of the New Covenant” (FC 13; cf. Trent, ND 1808; CCC 1638). Marriage is seen as:
a) an ongoing saving symbolic action,

b) grounded in the ministry of Christ and continued in and through the Church, which

c) when proclaimed, realized and celebrated in faith,

d) makes present and actually shares in, God’s love and faithfulness in Jesus Christ, in the
pattern of his Paschal Mystery.

As the Third Preface of the Wedding Mass prays to the Father: “The love of man and woman
is made holy in the Sacrament of Marriage, and becomes the mirror of your everlasting
love.”
 1. Sacrament: Rite and Ongoing Married Life
In speaking of Marriage as a Sacrament, we must be clear that it refers to two essential
things: both the sacramental celebration of marriage, and the ongoing married life. The
sacrament of marriage begins when a man and a woman stand before God and their fellow
men and women, and freely and publicly declare, in one form or another,
to be of one heart and one soul, from this day forward,

for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,

in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

2. “Why Get Married in the Church?”

Marriage in the Church is taken as merely some social custom or possibly a question
of personal preference or even of financial considerations.
It is, the solemn entry of the spouses into a binding commitment before God and the
Christian community, declaring: “We love one another and want our love to last forever.
We ask you to respect this commitment, and help us to keep it.”
Christ is the key to the answer. For truly believing Christians, entry into and perduring in
the most important relationship of their lives could not possibly succeed or make sense
except through, with and in Christ their Lord and Savior. Christ’s presence and concern for
Christian spouses is beautifully pictured in John’s Gospel account of the Wedding at
Cana (Jn 2:1-12), where he saved the married couple from embarrassment by changing
water into wine. This was the first of his ‘signs’ and “so he revealed his glory, and his
disciples believed in him” (Jn 2:11).
. But besides the wedding ceremony, there is the second meaning of marriage as a
sacrament: the ongoing married life of the couple. Couples preparing for marriage are
frequently reminded: “Marriage is a process, not a state, a beginning, not an end; a
threshold, not a goal. Your marriage certificate is a learner’s permit, not a diploma.” We
must be clear about the realism of what is affirmed of marriage as a. Marriage is not just a
celebration that “points to,” “witnesses to,” Christ’s love. Rather, Christ really gives himself
to the married couple in and through their ongoing mutual self-giving love.
Vatican II describes this presence of Christ our Savior, the spouse of the Church, in the
married life of the Christian spouses.
He abides with them in order that, by their mutual self-giving, spouses will love each other
with enduring fidelity . . . Authentic married love is caught up into divine love and is
directed and enriched by the redemptive power of Christ and the salvific action of the
Church (GS 48).
The marriage of Christians, then, “becomes a real symbol of that new and eternal covenant
sanctioned in the blood of Christ” (FC 13).
3. Marriage: the Sign of Christ
Christ, the Primordial Sacrament, then, is doubly associated with marriage, as with the
other ritual Sacraments. He provides the basis for Christian marriage, and is himself the
fullest exemplification of the spiritual reality symbolized: God’s perfect covenant love of His
people. Jesus himself is God’s covenant “in person,” THE LOVER, just as we saw he is The
Baptized One, The Confirmed One, The Really Present One, The Reconciler, The Healer, and of
course, The Priest.
4. Sacrament of the Church
The Church is the Foundational Sacrament, making the Risen Christ concretely present in
history through its ritual sacraments to the members of his Body. Christian marriage and
family life are said to constitute the Church in miniature, the “domestic Church. From the
marriage of Christians there comes the family in which new citizens of human society are
born and, by the grace of the Holy Spirit in Baptism, these are made children of God so the
People of God may be perpetuated through the centuries” (LG 11).
The specific similarities between the Christian family and the Church are
instructive. First, both the Church, as the People of God, and the Christian family,
are communities united together in love through the power of the Holy Spirit under the Lord
Jesus Christ. Second, the members of both are called to constant growth in loving
communion with one another and with Christ, a maturing process of constant conversion
involving purification and reconciliation. Third, both Church and Christian
family worship around the Table of the Lord, sharing in the Eucharistic celebration of
Christ, the unique Mediator. Fourth, Church and family both share Christ’s mission of loving
service, responding to human needs and promoting the Kingdom of God among men and
women. Finally, both Church and family are pilgrim people, on a journey toward a final
destination glimpsed only in Faith.
5. What the Church Does for the Family
• By proclaiming the word of God, the Church reveals to the Christian family its true
identity [truth] — what it is and should be according to the Lord’s plan.
• by celebrating the sacraments, the Church enriches and strengthens the Christian family
with the grace of Christ for its sanctification to the glory of the Father.
• by the continuous proclamation of the new commandment of love, the Church
encourages and guides the Christian family to service of love so that it may imitate and
relive the same self-giving and sacrificial love that Jesus has for the entire human race (FC
49).
6. Mission of the Family
1907. For its part, the Christian family shares in the saving mission of the Church since the
married couples not only “receive the love of Christ and become a savedcommunity, but
they are also called upon to communicate Christ’s love to their brethren, thus becoming
a saving community” (FC 49).
Families will generously share their spiritual riches with other families too. Thus the
Christian family . . . will manifest to all the Savior’s living presence in the world, and the
genuine nature of the Church, by the love and generous fruitfulness of the spouses, their
solidarity and fidelity, and by the loving way in which all members of the family work
together (GS 48).

B. Conjugal Love and Fidelity

By "faith" he means confident trust based on love.

What makes it trust is that the husband is confident about the wife's loyalty to him, and the
wife is confident about the husband's loyalty to her.

What is the basis of their mutual trust? It is their mutual love

She is confident that he will not be unfaithful to her, and he that she will not be unfaithful to
him.
Implicit in this Augustinian idea of mutual trust are many unspoken elements:

 That their married vows are vows, binding and therefore restricting the liberty that
each had before they made the vows.
 That marital love is exclusive love, one man and one woman, this man and this
woman, and no other man and no other woman.

Flowing from this Christian idea of mutual faith is Augustine's beautiful idea of Christian
friendship, which he sees exemplified in a marriage that is truly faithful on both sides. He
calls it amicitia, and he notes how often Scripture uses the nearness and dearness and
exclusiveness, and intimacy of marital love to describe the kind of love that God has for
man and that we should have for God.

One more facet of their mutual faith should be touched upon, and that is its capacity for
producing holiness.

Augustine's mother, Monica, has become for all ages the model of how fidelity in marriage
sanctifies. He speaks of her as "fair, reverent, amiable, and admirable to her husband."

We are in need of this truth today, to remind ourselves that marital fidelity is sanctifying;
that it has never been easy; and that it is most sanctifying when it is most demanding.

Two Aspects of Graced Conjugal Love

For Filipino youth today, two aspects of this “graced” conjugal love are extremely
important. The first is the integration of their sexuality into the married couple’s personal
bond of love. Our sexuality is truly human only when integrated into personal self-giving in
love. Otherwise it leads to disintegration and erodes our personal dignity and integrity.
Now, when conjugal love is truly authentic, it “leads the partners to a free and mutual gift of
self, experienced in tenderness and action, and permeates their whole lives. . . This is a far
cry from mere erotic attraction, which is pursued in selfishness and soon fades away in
wretchedness” (GS 49).
The second aspect is that authentic conjugal love is never a romantic, self-centered,
individualistic reality separated from the actual social, economic and cultural conditions of
the partners. Married love must be seen as inclusive of both the personal and the objective
or institutional elements of the family and within the larger community.
Marriage Fidelity/Indissolubility
. The very nature of authentic conjugal love of the spouses argues for constant fidelity (CCC
1646-51). “The intimate union of marriage, as a mutual gift of two persons, and the good of
the children, demands total fidelity from the spouses and requires an unbreakable unity
between them” (GS 48).
Christ proclaimed “Therefore, let no man separate what God has joined” (Mt 19:6).This was
not a legal prescription about marriage, but rather Christ’s prophetic, messianic
proclamation that God’s saving activity was already present through his ministry. Moses
had allowed divorce because of the “hardness of their hearts” (cf. Mt 19:8). But now that
“hardness” could be softened: the power was at hand, and offered constantly, to surmount
the natural, everyday obstacles to persevering conjugal fidelity. How? Through the grace
and power of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We don’t love each other any more!” Thus runs a common objection against the permanence
of the marriage covenant. But the wedding consent itself clearly proposes the marriage
covenant as indissoluble “till death do us part.” Moreover, traditionally the true inner
reality of the marriage covenant was made “external” by speaking of the indissolubility of
the marriage contract. The basic problem is obviously: what is the love that marriage calls
forth from the married couple, that makes indissoluble marriage possible and fruitful? (cf.
CCC 1644-45).
Our response in faith must be that permanent conjugal love IS possible through Christ’s
grace-filled presence in the Holy Spirit. Through the sacramental grace of marriage, Christ
gradually transforms the married couple in all the ups-and-downs, trials and sacrifices of
their married love, into their own unique creation of sharing in his Paschal Love.
Yet where sin is present, grace abounds even more. Since the Gospel times, believing
Christians have wrestled with this seemingly impossible ideal. Yet they believed that Christ,
“the perfect man, has restored to the children of Adam that likeness to God which had been
disfigured ever since the first sin” (GS 22). Thus, they are convinced that in insisting on
God’s original plan for marriage, Christ will give the grace and strength to live the marriage
covenant, through the power of his Holy Spirit, the new presence of God among them.

C. Serving Life: Offspring

"The procreation of children is the first, natural, and legitimate purpose of marriage."-St
Augustine
He distinguishes two kinds of sins that a couple commit against this first blessing of
marriage:

1. Mortal Sin is fornication and adultery for gravity, when the married couple
deliberately seek to prevent conception while enjoying intercourse.

Since Augustine's time, the Church's hierarchy, notably the Popes, have been quoting
Augustine in this matter – being sure that they were reflecting the Church's constant
tradition. He speaks of "evil appliances," used in his day. They were evil then and they are
evil now, only they have since become more sophisticated.

2. Venial Sin which may come as a surprise to some people. Augustine has been much
maligned on this point. He says that when marital intercourse is had without the use
of contraceptives but performed with what we might call "a contraceptive frame of
mine," it is nevertheless wrong and venially sinful.

What can this mean? It can mean that a couple do not use physical contraceptives but when
they have intercourse they either selfishly hope they will not have a pregnancy, or selfishly
do not want a conception, or when their only purpose in having intercourse is to enjoy the
pleasures of sex, they do not sin gravely, but they do sin venially.

Why should Augustine say this? Because Christians, in his estimation, should never become
so preoccupied with the sexual experience as to ignore either the procreative purpose of
intercourse, or the unitive purpose of intercourse.

In other words, marital intercourse should not be self-directed but altruistic. It should
express a selfless love directed to another person beyond the individual married spouse.
References:

https://www.ezrainstitute.ca/resource-library/articles/augustine-on-the-good-of-
marriage-part-1

http://www.staugustinecatholicchurch.org/sacraments-marriage

http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Marriage/Marriage_003.htm

https://justmehomely.wordpress.com/2012/02/16/chapter-28-vocations-in-christ-
marriage-and-holy-orders/