1. The Sacrament of Marriage

2. Putting the pieces together –Throughout this PowerPoint it will help if you use the HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT of the Sacrament of Marriage to identify Scriptural Supports for Marriage –Old Testament –New Testament The steps towards marriage The Rite of Christian Marriage The Sacramental Effects of Marriage The major issues and challenges that the Church has faced during the development of the Sacrament of Marriage

3. The Sacrament of Marriage Historical development –Before the 11 th century, there was no such thing as a Christian wedding ceremony in the Latin church. –After the Council of Trent, in an effort to eliminate abuses in the practice of clandestine or secret marriages a standard Catholic wedding rite came into existence.

4. The Sacrament of Marriage Initially, church leaders relied primarily on the civil government to regulate marriage and divorce between Christians. It was only when the imperial government was no longer able to enforce its own statutes that Christian bishops began to take legal control over marriage and make it an official church function.

5. The Sacrament of Marriage Today, some Catholic theologians and canon lawyers are asking whether it might be better to let the legal regulation of marriage revert back to civic control, without denying that church weddings are important communal celebrations or that Christian marriages are sacramental.

6. The Sacrament of Marriage Whether marriage began with promiscuity or fidelity, monogamy or polygamy, matriarchy or patriarchy, permanent or temporary may never be known. In early Rome, marriage was a religious affair but based on the religion of the family where the father served as the priest.

7. The Sacrament of Marriage The father’s duty was to continue the family religion by providing children to carry it on and included capturing girls to continue the family lines. Eventually, the practice became less violent and the women were not forcibly abducted but fathers obtained wives for their sons in exchange for a “bride price” which compensated the girl’s family for the loss of a skilled and fertile member. The bride was then escorted by her father to her new home with a ‘ritual abduction.’

8. The Sacrament of Marriage Marriage was initially strongly patriarchal; however, the reality of war allowed for the emphasis to change from being the religion of the family to a more nationalistic one and for more equality as women began to control the affairs at home while the husbands were away The betrothal ring took the place of the bride price and the idea of mutual consent of the partners rather than parental arrangement became more prominent

9. The Sacrament of Marriage By the 2 nd century divorces were common (especially among the upper classes) and a private affair which did not require the approval of any civil authority. A woman who wanted to be freed from her husband had to ask him to grant her a divorce, and if he refused she was obliged to stay with him.

10. The Sacrament of Marriage Generally speaking the Scriptures discouraged divorce but did permit it in certain situations – most commonly that of marital infidelity. What Jesus taught about the permanence of marriage was a radical departure from the traditional Jewish acceptance of divorce. Jesus taught that divorce was wrong, that God did not intend it to happen and the he himself saw it as falling far short of moral perfection. –“Anyone who commits adultery and whoever marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”

11. The Sacrament of Marriage Tertullian wrote: “How shall we ever be able to describe the happiness of a marriage which the church supports, which is confirmed in the Eucharistic offering and which is sealed by the blessing? Such a marriage is proclaimed by the angels and ratified by the Father in heaven.” All Christian marriages should expect to be supported by the community.

12. The Sacrament of Marriage In the early 4 th century, the council of Elvira in Spain prohibited a woman from remarrying if she left an unfaithful spouse but said nothing prohibiting a man from doing so. Later in France, a similar council at Arles declared that young men who caught their wives in adultery should be counseled not to remarry, though it was not forbidden. –This is quite a departure from stoning the adulterous couple to death.

13. The Sacrament of Marriage The Church had no legal say in the matter of marriages, divorces and remarriages. Not until 449 was it legal for a woman to divorce her husband for adultery. –Consensual divorce was still not allowed. –You could get a divorce if your spouse committed robbery, kidnapping, treason and other serious crimes. –No longer did innocent wives have to suffer because of the sins of their husbands.

14. The Sacrament of Marriage The marriage custom was still primarily a family affair and the bride’s father played the chief role by handing over his daughter to the groom by placing her hand in that of the groom’s in her own family’s house, after which the bridal party walked in procession to her new husband’s house for concluding ceremonies and a wedding feast. A garland of flowers over the couple symbolized their happy union. No official words or ecclesiastical blessing required until late in the 4 th century when a priest or bishop may give his blessing but this was seen as an honor.

15. The Sacrament of Marriage Gradually the wedding ceremony developed into a liturgical action in which the priest joined the couple in marriage and blessed their union, but still this ceremony was not mandatory and through the 7 th century Christians still got married in a purely secular ceremony.

16. The Sacrament of Marriage Marriage unites and consecrates 2 persons in fidelity to each other and symbolizes the love and respect that married people should always have for each other. By marriage, Christians enter into and participate in the mystery of union with Christ. It is a true earthly union of one man with one woman, which both symbolizes and takes place within the spiritual union of one Lord with the one Church. –St. Paul said: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church.... This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church." (Eph 5:25, 32).

17. The Sacrament of Marriage Saint Ambrose, in his commentary on Luke 8:5 comments, “What God has joined together, let no one separate.” Saint Augustine distrusted sexual desire and understood it to be a destructive and dangerous human energy if not kept within bounds. –Marriage is good even though sex is not. –The only justification for intercourse was to produce offspring. “A man too ardent a lover of his wife is an adulterer, if the pleasure he finds in her is sought for its own sake.”

18. The Sacrament of Marriage Roman vs. Germanic marriage customs –Roman: marriage valid by consent –Germanic: marriage not completed or consumated until the first act of intercourse People sought to rid themselves of unwanted spouses by claiming that they had secretly contracted a previous marriage. –Which marriage was the real marriage?

19. The Sacrament of Marriage In 866, Pope Nicholas I states that a marriage is legal and binding even without any public or liturgical ceremony: “If anyone’s marriage is in question, all that is needed is that they gave their consent, as the law demands. If this consent is lacking in a marriage then all the other celebrations count for nothing, even if intercourse has occurred.” According to Rome, it was the couple’s consent, not their betrothal by their parents or their blessing by a priest, that legally established the marriage.

20. The Sacrament of Marriage By the year 1000, all marriages in Europe effectively came under the jurisdictional power of the Church and demanded that all weddings be solemnly blessed by a priest. –The wedding ceremony was performed at the Church door followed by a nuptial mass. –Clergy were present only as witnesses.

21. The Sacrament of Marriage By the 12 th century an established wedding ceremony exists whereby the priest asked the bride and groom if why consented to marriage. The father of the bride then handed his daughter to the groom and gave him her dowry. The priest then blessed the ring that was given to the bride, after which he blessed the marriage. During the nuptial mass the bride was veiled and blessed after which the priest gave the husband the ritual kiss of peace who passed it to his wife. In some places the priest would bless the wedding chambers.

22. The Sacrament of Marriage By emphasizing consent there arose legal difficulties about the legitimacy of children because some men would desert their wives and children, claiming that they had “never intended to establish a marriage.” –Consent was seen as contracting the marriage and sexual intercourse completed or consumated it. Hence, Catholics had to prove that their marriage contract should be nullified, declared to be nonexistent, either for lack of intercourse or for some other canonically acceptable reason. –The beginning of what is now known as an annulment

23. The Sacrament of Marriage In the late 12 th and early 13 th centuries marriage came to be viewed as one of the seven official sacraments. Some difficulties with this included: –The reality that marriages involved financial agreements made it looked as though grace could be bought or sold. –Marriage existed before the coming of Christ, so how could Jesus have instituted marriage. –Marriage involved sexual intercourse which was seen as being less than morally desirable.

24. The Sacrament of Marriage What is the effect of the Sacrament of marriage? –Aquinas taught that Christians were called to an ideal of constant fidelity and perfect love which could not be attained without the supernatural power of God’s grace.

25. The Sacrament of Marriage John Duns Scotus taught that the minister of the sacrament was not the priest but the couple getting married. –Marriage is a contract giving people a right to have sexual relations. –A woman was bound in justice to give her husband what was his by right. She had to grant his requests lest he be tempted to bring discord into the marriage by satisfying his desires with someone else. –Not every act of intercourse had to be performed with the intention of having children.

26. The Sacrament of Marriage Martin Luther during the Protestant Reformation argued that since marriage has always existed “there is no reason why it should be called a sacrament of the new law and the sole property of the church.” –Marriage belongs under natural and civil law, not church law. –The church should leave each city and state to its own customs and practices. –Personally detested divorce yet allowed in the case of adultery

27. The Sacrament of Marriage The Council of Trent (1563) defends the sacramentality of marriage by pointing to the unbreakable bond established at creation and by saying that Jesus reaffirmed the sacramentality of marriage whose grace raises natural love to perfect love. No Christian marriage is valid and sacramental unless it is contracted in the presence of a priest and 2 witnesses.

28. The Sacrament of Marriage A change in the tides –The Napoleonic code of 1792 made civil weddings mandatory for all French citizens. –As the state became more involved in marriages the question of sacramentality of civil unions arises.

29. The Sacrament of Marriage Marriage was a sacrament instituted by Christ in which 2 legally competent persons became permanently united as husband and wife. The sacramentum was the giving of consent, the external rite in which they agreed to the marriage and took each other as their spouse. The sacramentum et res was the marriage contract, the sacramental reality which both symbolized the permanent union between Christ and the church and permanently united the couple in the bond of marriage. The couple received the grace to be faithful to each other as Christian spouses and to fulfill their duties as parents. Primary was the procreation and education of children. Secondary was the spiritual perfection of the spouses by means of the grace of the sacrament, the mutual support they gave to each other, and the morally permissible satisfaction of their sexual needs.

30. The Sacrament of Marriage In modern times, marriage is seen mainly as an expression of love between a man and a woman Unity of 2 persons in a common life of sharing and commitment, and the meaning of intercourse was the physical and spiritual self-giving that occurred in the intimate union of 2 persons in love Spouses are penetrated with the spirit of Christ and their whole life is suffused by faith, hope and charity. They are called to help and serve each other by their marriage partnership through total fidelity –The Church maintains that homosexual unions are not sacramental unions.

31. The Sacrament of Marriage With the reality of divorce in the United States, some have proposed that marriage is sacramental when it embodies and expresses the kind of love that exists between Christ and the Church and that such a marriage would necessarily be permanent because the love within it would be faithful, forgiving, and self-sacrificing. But if the marriage no longer embodied and expressed that kind of love, it would in fact be no longer sacramental, and by the same token it would be liable to end in divorce Does American society allow for the development of interpersonal skills needed for an intimate, life-long relationship?

32. The Sacrament of Marriage In response to this reality, parishes in the United States often require marriage preparation to help the couple look at important questions and to help ensure that they are ready and capable of making a life-long, total commitment of oneself.

33. The Sacrament of Marriage In groups, identify –The Scriptural supports for Marriage Old Testament New Testament –The steps towards marriage –The Rite of Christian Marriage –The Sacramental Effects of Marriage –The major issues and challenges that the Church has faced during the development of the Sacrament of Marriage If you were a bishop, what challenges would you pose to American society and its views/attitudes about marriage?