SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE

Catholic Churches' Teachings on the Sacrament of Marriage



Catholic Churches' Teachings on the Sacrament of Marriage

Introduction

Marriage between a baptized man and a woman, living the Christian faith, is a sacrament if it is decided freely willed as unique and definitive, that is to say until death, and opened the childcare. The sacrament of marriage gives spouses the grace to strengthen and perfect their love, to strengthen their indissoluble unity and holiness in their family life. Marriage must be celebrated publicly by the exchange of consent: public engagement and free of spouses to each other. The celebration is usually done before the Christian assembly, witnesses and the priest, a deacon or a priest delegated by him. The celebrant calls God's blessing on the couple and their homes.

Discussion

Most of the sacrament of marriage is the exchange of consent: the double "yes" that the bride and groom to offer life. They are themselves the ministers of the sacrament, not the priest. It may be noted that marriage is the only sacrament received in church, which is not given by a priest or bishop (George & Elshtain, 2006). However, the priest, privileged witness of the Church, must be present as such in order for the marriage to be valid.

"Christ himself, binds the husband of a single union, indissoluble and fruitful in the image of His Covenant, always faithful to the Church: Christ never leaves His Church until the end of time! as God never chose another people Israel even when Israel was rebellious! " Cardinal Renard, Congress of Catholic Family Associations, 1971. The Church in the person of the priest and the people of God, is Witness, and Witness amazed. The Church sees in the alliance promised a figure and an image of the great covenant that God has sealed with his people Israel, and finally made ??his own Son: what is the meaning of the exchange of rings, in the rite (Silbermann, 1983). The Church guarantees, through the sacrament of marriage in which she sees the union of Christ and the Church, Christ's presence in the heart of the couple, which is a "small church": unity, indissolubility, fidelity, based on the whole person, the community of marriage.

But this presence of Christ, far from soothing or exhilarating, is a creative and redemptive presence: it is a presence of joy, peace and reconciliation, where the relationship of love leads to inevitable injuries. Remember that marriage is the union of two people injured. Christ is present in both the public life of the couple, their relationships with others, in his most intimate life (Wistinghausen, 1998). Christ is the alpha and omega of all that is the couple, its essential reference because it is the Son of the Father and that all love is, just like the experiences of three divine persons , assumption of filial relationships in an eternal fatherhood, an eternal generation.

Christ accomplished his great work of redemption in the union of these two people sinners, whose vocation is to holiness in love: ...