263. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church…”

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 263

Ave Maria series

263  Why is marriage indissoluble?

Marriage is triply indissoluble: first, because the essence of love is mutual self-giving without reservation; second, because it is an image of God’s unconditional faithfulness to his creation; and third, because it represents Christ’s devotion to his Church, even unto death on the cross.  [1605, 1612-1617, 1661]

Embroidery on cloth: The Sacred Heart of Jesus in Saint Nicolas’ Church, Ghent, Belgium…”I will never forget you.” –Isaiah 49:15d.  The Sacred heart of Jesus, a devotion revealed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, represents Jesus’ love for all humanity.  It is for us to imitate Christ.…..263

At a time when 50 percent of marriages in many places end in divorce, every marriage that lasts is a great sign—ultimately a sign for God.  On this earth, where so much is relative, people ought to believe in God, who alone is absolute.  That is why everything that is not relative is so important: (as we find in) someone who speaks the truth absolutely or is absolutely loyal.  Absolute fidelity in marriage is not so much a human achievement as it is a testimony to the faithfulness of God, who is there even when we betray or forget him in so many ways.  To be married in the Church means to rely more on God’s help than on one’s own resources of love.

“Someone who loves a neighbor allows him to be as he is, as he was, and as he will be.”  Michel Quoist (1921-1997, French priest and author)

“To love a person means to see him as God intended him.”  Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky (1821-1881

“To love someone means to be the only one to see a miracle that is invisible to others…”  Francois Mauriac (1885-1979)

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word…Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.” Ephesians 5:25-26, 28

[1605, 1612-1617, 1661]

THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY

MARRIAGE IN GOD'S PLAN

Marriage in the order of creation

1605 Holy Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: "It is not good that the man should be alone."(Genesis 2:18.)⁹²  The woman, "flesh of his flesh," his equal, his nearest in all things, is given to him by God as a "helpmate"; she thus represents God from whom comes our help.(Compare Genesis 2:18-25.)⁹³  "Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh."(Genesis 2:24.)⁹⁴  The Lord himself shows that this signifies an unbreakable union of their two lives by recalling what the plan of the Creator had been "in the beginning": "So they are no longer two, but one flesh."(Matthew 19:6.)⁹⁵–Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

Marriage in the Lord

1612 The nuptial covenant between God and his people Israel had prepared the way for the new and everlasting covenant in which the Son of God, by becoming incarnate and giving his life, has united to himself in a certain way all mankind saved by him, thus preparing for "the wedding-feast of the Lamb."(Revelation 19:7,9; compare Gaudium et Sps 22.)¹⁰⁴–CCC

1613 On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign - at his mother's request - during a wedding feast.(Compare John 2:1-11.)¹⁰⁵    The Church attaches great importance to Jesus' presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ's presence. –CCC

1614 In his preaching Jesus unequivocally taught the original meaning of the union of man and woman as the Creator willed it from the beginning: permission given by Moses to divorce one's wife was a concession to the hardness of hearts.(Compare Matthew 19:8.)¹⁰⁶    The matrimonial union of man and woman is indissoluble: God himself has determined it "what therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder."(Matthew 19:6.)¹⁰⁷–CCC

1615 This unequivocal insistence on the indissolubility of the marriage bond may have left some perplexed and could seem to be a demand impossible to realize. However, Jesus has not placed on spouses a burden impossible to bear, or too heavy - heavier than the Law of Moses.(Compare Mark 8:34; Matthew 11:29-30.)¹⁰⁸  By coming to restore the original order of creation disturbed by sin, he himself gives the strength and grace to live marriage in the new dimension of the Reign of God. It is by following Christ, renouncing themselves, and taking up their crosses that spouses will be able to "receive" the original meaning of marriage and live it with the help of Christ.(Compare Matthew 19:11.)¹⁰⁹ This grace of Christian marriage is a fruit of Christ's cross, the source of all Christian life.–CCC

1616 This is what the Apostle Paul makes clear when he says: "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her," adding at once: "'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one. This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church."(Ephesians 5:25-26,31-32; compare Genesis 2:24.)¹¹⁰–CCC

1617 The entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church. Already Baptism, the entry into the People of God, is a nuptial mystery; it is so to speak the nuptial bath.(Compare Ephesians 5:26-27.)¹¹¹which precedes the wedding feast, the Eucharist. Christian marriage in its turn becomes an efficacious sign, the sacrament of the covenant of Christ and the Church. Since it signifies and communicates grace, marriage between baptized persons is a true sacrament of the New Covenant.(Compare Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1800; Codex Iuris Canonici, Can. 1055 § 2.)¹¹²–CCC

IN BRIEF

1661 The sacrament of Matrimony signifies the union of Christ and the Church. It gives spouses the grace to love each other with the love with which Christ has loved his Church; the grace of the sacrament thus perfects the human love of the spouses, strengthens their indissoluble unity, and sanctifies them on the way to eternal life (Compare Council of Trent: Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1799). –CCC

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