Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 9.djvu/761

 MARRIAGE

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BCARRIAGX

to be scientifically examined and systematically ar- ranged. Furthermore, that the seven sacraments should be grouped in one category was by no means self-evident. For, though it was accepted that each of these rites conferred interior grace, yet, in contrast to their common invisible effect, the cfifference in ex- ternal ceremony and even in the immediate purpose of the production of grace was so ^feat that^or a long time, it hindered a uniform classification. Thus, there is a radical difference between the external form under which baptism, confirmation, and orders, on the one hand are administered, and, on the other hand, those that characterize penance and marriage. For while marriage is in the nature of a contract, and penance in the nature of a judicial process, the three first-men- tioned take the form of a religious consecration of the recipients.

I. Proof op Sacramental Character op Chris- tian Marriage. — In the proof of Apostolicity of the doctrine that marriage is a sacrament of the New Law, it will suffice to show that the Church has in fact al- ways taught concerning marriage what belongs to the essence of a sacrament. The name sacrament cannot be cited as satisfactory evidence, since it did not ac- quire until a late period the exclusively technical meaning it has to-day; both in pre-Christian times and in the first centuries of the Christian Era it had a much broader and more indefinite signification. In this sense is to be understood the statement of Leo XIII in his Encyclical "Arcanum" (10 February, 1880) : "To the teaching of the Apostles, indeed, are to be referrred the doctrines which our holy fathers, the councils, and the tradition of the Universal Church have always taught, namely that Christ Our Lord raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament. '' The pope rightly emphasizes the importance of the tradi- tion of the Universal Church. Without this it would be very difficult to get from the Scriptures and the Fathers clear and decisive proof for all, even the un- learned, that marriage is a sacrament in the strict sense of the word. The process of demonstration would be too lon^ and would require a knowledge of theology which the ordinary faithful do not possess. In themselves, however, the direct testimonies of the Scriptures ana of several of the Fathers are of suffi- cient weight to constitute a real proof, despite the denial of a few theologians past and present.

The classical Scriptural text is the declaration of the Apostle Paul (Eph., v, 22 sqq.), who emphati- cally aeclares that the relation between husband and wife should be as the relation between Christ and His Church: " Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord: because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church. He is the saviour of his body. Therefore as the Church is sub- ject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their hus- bands in all thines. Husbands, love your wives, as CSirist also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it: that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life; that He might present it to Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it shomd be holy, and without blemish. So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth it and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the Church: because we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. " After this exhortation the Apostle alludes to the Divine institu- tion of marriage in the prophetical words proclaimed by God through Adam : For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. " He then concludes with the significant words in which he characterizes Christian marriage: "This is a great sacrament; but I ■peak in Christ and in the Church. **

It would be rash, of course, to infer immediately

from the expression, "This is a great sacrament^', that marriage is a sacrament of the New Law in the strict sense, for the meaning of the word sacrament, as already remarked, is too indefinite. But considering the expression in its relation to the preceding words, we are led to the conclusion that it is to be taken in the strict sense of a sacrament of the New Law. The love of Christian spouses for each other should be mod- elled on the love oetween Christ and the Church, be- cause Christian marriage, as a copy and token of the union of Christ with the Church, is a great mysteiy or sacrament. It would not be a solemn, mysterious symbol of the union of Christ with the Church, which takes concrete form in the individual members of the Church, imless it efficaciously represented this union, i. e. not merely by signifying the supernatural life- imion of Christ with the Church, but also by causing that union to be realized in the individual members; or, in other words, by conferring the supernatural life of grace. The first marriage between Adam and Eve in Paradise was a symbol of this imion; in Yact, merely as a symbol, it surpassed individual Christian mar- riages, inasmuch as it was an antecedent type, whereas individual Christian marriages are subsequent repre- sentations. There would be no reason, therefore, why the Apostle should refer with such emphasis to Chris- tian marriage as ao qreai a sacrament, if the greatness of Christian marriage did not lie in the fact, that it is not a mere sign, but an efficacious sign of the life of grace. In fact, it would be entirely out of keeping with the economy of the New Testament if we pos- sessed a sign of grace and salvation instituted by God which was only an empty sign, and not an efficacious one. Elsewhere (Gal., iv, 9), St. Paul emphasizes in a most significant fashion the difference between the Old and the New Testament, when he calls the religious rites of the former "weak and needy elements'' which could not of themselves confer true sanctity, the effect of true justice and sanctity being reserved for the New Testament and its religious rites. If, therefore, he terms Christian marriage, as a religious act, a great sacrament, he means not to reduce it to the low plane of the Old Testament rites, to the plane of a "weak and needy element'', but rather to show its impor- tance as a sign of the life of grace, and, like the other sacraments, an efficacious sign. St. Paul, then, does not speak of marriage as a true sacrament in explicit and immediately apparent fashion, but only in such wise that the doctrine must l)e deduced from his words. Hence, the Council of Trent (Sess. XXIV), in the dogmatic chapter on marriage, says that the sacra- mental effect of grace in marriage is ''intimated" by the Apostle in the Epistle to the Ephesians {gytod PatUus Apostolus innuit).

For further confirmation of the doctrine that mar- riage under the New Law confers grace and is there- fore included among the true sacraments, the Council of Trent refers to the Holy Fathers, the earlier coun- cils, and the ever manifest tradition of the universal Church. The teaching of the Fathers and t^e con- stant tradition of the Church, as already remarked, set forth the dogma of Christian marriage as a sacrament, not in the scientific, theological terminology of later times, but only in substance. Substantiidh^, the fol- lowing elements belong to a sacrament oi the New I^w: (1) it must l>e a sacred reli^ous rite instituted by Christ; (2) this rite must be a si^ of interior sano- tification; (3) it must confer this mterior sanctifica- tion or Divine grace; (4) this effect of Divine grace must be produced, not only in conjunction with the respective religious act, but throu^^ it. Hence, who- ever attributes these elements to Christian niarriage, thereby declares it a true sacrament in the strict sense of the word.

Testimony to this effect is to be found from the ear- liest Christian times onward. The clearest is that of St. Augustine in his works ''De bono oonjugii" and