In this essay contributed as part of his university studies, Daniel Gullotta examines some of the Christian thinking on the Sacrament of Marriage. While the union of Adam and Eve might serve as the most rudimentary model of marriage, Daniel argues the more theologically complete model is to view the Holy Trinity as the model for marriage.

What Is Marriage?

Of all the sacraments once could argue that holy matrimony is the most visible of love — humanity's and God's. Every nation, every culture and every religion as one form or another of expressing the union between a man and woman and each form their own rituals, practices and rites. As well as this, each one has a model, some kind of mould that structures what the bride and groom's marriage should be like. Within the Christian context, the Church for centuries has viewed the merger of Adam and Eve as the perfect model of Christian marriage.[1] However is this truly the best model the Christian faith has to offer? This essay will argue that the Holy Trinity is the better model for Christian marriage and in doing so this essay will explore the meaning, references, evolution and understanding of the sacrament of marriage.

In explaining marriage from a Christian understanding it is almost impossible to keep a straight line between the theological and the political as the act of matrimony contains elements of both. While marriage was recognized and regarded as a sacrament in the broad sense, it was not until the twelfth century that the Church considered it as a sacrament in the same sense as Baptism, Eucharist and the other official sacraments.[2] One of the main theological problems being that matrimony was an institution predating Christ and as old as even society's it's self. Marriage had always been a feature of society and simply a civil process. However, John Macquarrie explains that into relation to this civil tradition that "Christian marriage, so to speak, 'baptizing' the ancient institution, not abolishing its traditional character but by introducing new and distinctively Christian elements."[3] Therefore the Church does not re-marry where a civil marriage has already taken place, but it may bless such a marriage by adding a uniquely Christian dimension to such a union.

So what then is the purpose of a Christian marriage?

On the purpose of marriage the 1662 Book of Common Prayer states:

• First, [matrimony] was ordained for the procreation of children, to be brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord, and to the praise of his holy name.
• Secondly, it was ordained for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication; that such persons have not the gift of contingency might marry, and keep themselves undefiled remembers of Christ's body.
• Thirdly, it was ordained for the mutual society, help and comfort that the one ought to have of the other, both in prosperity and adversity.[4]

It should be noted that there are many modern revisions of this rite and that these have been restored and re-ordered. The second purpose has been dropped from the rite and the third purpose as replaced the first in order. However the basic structure of what the model marriage should strive for remains basically the same, stressing companionship and procreation. This basic understanding and model of marriage is traced back to Genesis, with the creation and union of Adam and Eve.

'Procreative Institution'

The narrative of Adam and Eve has been the one dominate model of marriage in the Christian (particularly Catholic) tradition from the second to the twentieth century or as Michael Lawler labels it, 'procreative institution'. Lawler describes this model as "socio-religious, thoroughly stable structure of meaning in which a man and woman become husband and wife in order to become mother and father; in order, that is, to procreate children."[5] This model is stressed by the first command of God in the garden to his creation that they would be "fruitful and multiply".[6] In the thirteenth century, Thomas Aquinas stated that "Marriage has its principal end in the procreation and education of offspring... A secondary end in man alone, the sharing of tasks which necessary in life, and from this point of view husband and wife owe each other faithfulness."[7]

The Trinity also serves as an icon for marriage

However is this concept a healthy one to uphold as a model for the Christian marriage?

Many would beg to differ as this model does not take into account those who cannot or wish not to bear children, nor does it really involve the concept of relationship. Marriage is in this model is basically a function of procreation, hardly a relationship of equality. It is clear that the concept of marriage has evolved from being a social duty to an individual right and from being in the wishes and plans of one's family to one's own desire for personal love and a relationship. The meaning of marriage has clearly shifted to the unity of two persons sharing a common life and commitment. Procreation is now a secondary purpose to marriage.

The traditional models and metaphors of the Christian marriage have been asymmetrical, for example Christ as the head and the Church as the body. These models work well for the priesthood, but it is not suitable for marriage.

Having said that, what model is?

The Triune Image

The Trinity on the other hand, the very nature of God is all about relationship, mutuality and interdependence continually being traced back to the 'imageo dei', the image of God. Our very being, all of humanity's being is created in this image, the image of the Triune God. The triune image has profound meanings and effects, declaring that humanity is not merely personal but interpersonal. As Damien Casey explains, "God as Trinity is not a unit but a union; not self-love but shared love. God is communion and as Trinity is mutuality, self-giving, 'I and Thou'."[8]

Though a woman and a man are separate individuals, both of the individuals point to the unity of individual believers and the Church with Christ and with the God the Father. Christian marriage is portrayed as the epitome of mutuality. Neither spouse owns her or his own body; that body belongs to the other spouse and to them both jointly.[9] To be just, even the true body does not fully grasp the unity and relationship being expressed through this sacrament. A better word to use is person.

The person is distinctive and unique, just as the Son is distinct and unique to the Father, so is the husband to the wife. However the distinctness of the Son is not lost in the Son's triune relationship with the Father, its uniqueness is in fact preserved.[10] The same applies for the husband and wife, so in following the life of the Trinity, being one of mutual independence and distinction in unity, the husband and wife's individuality is not compromised but is raised to it's highest level. To quote Casey, "To be a person is to be relationship."[11]

This model will be labelled as the 'unifying institution' model.

True Love, God's Love

It is clear that the understanding of Christian marriage is a sacrament and not a legal agreement. The meaning of marriage cannot be so simply reduced to either Judaic utilitarianism or Roman legalism, believing that it is the possibility and the responsibility given to both husband and wife to transfigure their 'argument' into the reality of the Kingdom.[12] After all, every human being is born a citizen of a country, a member of a family, a participant in culture and ritual as well as the speak of a language. The material existence is not denied by the Gospel. But every person, in the image and likeness of the triune God, yearns and seeks true love, the highest form of beauty.[13] Yet it is not a quest for sight or sound, but experience, experiencing this beauty that is true love. It is God, who is not the source of his beauty and love but is that beauty and love, which a person can experience.

John Meyendorff explains, "To Him man can appeal; His voice he can hear and His love he can experience. For a Christian, God is not an idea to be understood but a person to meet: "I am in my Father, and you are in me and I am in you" (John 14:20). In God man discovers his own humanity, because he has been created as an 'image of God'. And Christ, being True God, also manifested a true humanity, not in spite of His Divinity, but precisely because He was True God: in Him, we see Divinity as the true norm of humanity."[14]

It is clear that basing a theology of marriage on a Trinitarian theology ensures a proper emphasise the unique person in each loving relationship. This also allows the theology of marriage to be more effectively related to and understood by the mainstream of Christian thought.[15] Those who are married are those who have been called by God to be like God. David Thomas explains the concept of martial love being a vocation, "The married are called to love, to be like God, and to cooperate with God in the continued transformation of creation."[16] This love arises from within the relationship of husband and wife who are subjective expressions of each. They are welded together in a deep love, a love which fully respects the uniqueness of each. There is genuine diversity which is maintained in each one's love for the other. Their love for each other supports their life together.[17]

To state Philip Cody, "God is Love and whenever He acts, the Love of God is active. The living action is inseparable from the Love of the Blessed Trinity. The Persons of the Trinity form an eminent of Love."[18]

The Sign of Love

It is this sign and symbol of love and relationship that marriage points to and brings into the reality. In marriage, a person does not only satisfy the needs of one's earthly existence and civil duty but also realizes something very important of the purpose in which they were created for — a vocation and calling from God. The Triune God who is love calls the person to share and enter the realm of eternal life in union and in relationship. As a sacrament, marriage is the on going sign and symbol of the presence, reflection and experience of God's love.[19] It is the husband and wife's true love that points to love, the expression and embodiment of God's love, the truest love. In marriage, humanity's love can only reflect God's love.

It is the husband and wife's experience of true love that points to love, the expression and embodiment of God's love, the truest love. It is the love of the Trinity that is the source and working force of the love of the husband and wife. Not only is the Trinity's love seen as the source of married love, but it is the continuing presence of God's love. It is the husband and wife that allow the Trinity to reveal this love, husband to wife, wife to husband and married couple to the world.20 Therefore a sacramental marriage is not just a wedding to be celebrated, which it is also, but on a more critical level it is an equal and loving partnership to be lived for the whole life of the married people.[21]

Expressed and Experienced

It is clear that over the centuries the Catholic Church has favoured the model of 'procreative institution' in which procreation is the driving focus and the interpersonal union of the husband and wife is just as important as procreation. However it is even clear that such a model is no longer valid with the shift in the Christian understanding of what it means to be married today. With the model of 'unifying institution', the focus shifts from procreation and bonding to relationship and unification. The union of persons in the marital relationship centres on reflecting the love of God. The love of God is expressed and experienced daily in married life and by doing so the love of the husband and wife are meant to reflect the love of God to each other and to the world.

FOOTNOTES:
[1] Anselm Grun, The Seven Sacraments (New York: Continum, 2003), 170.
[2] Joseph Martos, Doors to the Sacred: A Historical Introduction to Sacraments in the Catholic Church (Missouri: Liguori Publications, 1943), 351.
[3] John Macquarrie, A Guide to the Sacraments (London, SCM Press, 1997), 215.
[4] Ibid., 215-2016.
[5] Michael Lawler, Marriage and the Catholic Church: Disputed Questions (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 2002), 30.
[6] Gen 1:28
[7] Lawler, Disputed Questions, 31.
[8] Damien Casey, The Nature of our Salvation in Christ: Salvation as Participation and Divinisation (Theology@McAuley: Issue 3, 2003, assessed 14th May 2008); available from http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/staffhome/dacasey/SalvationasParticipation.html; Internet.
[9] Peter Elliott, What God Has Joined: The Sacramentality of Marriage (Australia: St Paul Publications, 1995), 40.
[10] Casey, The Nature of our Salvation.
[11] Ibid.
[12] John Meyendorff, Marriage: An Orthodox Perspective (New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1970), 21.
[13] Ibid, 21.
[14] Ibid, 21
[15] David Thomas, Christian Marriage: A Journey Together (Delaware: Michael Glazier Inc, 1983), 51.
[16] Ibid, 51.
[17] Ibid, 51.
[18] Philip Cody, How God Works in Christian Marriage: A Study on Gaudium and Spes" (Rome: Dissertatio Ad Lauream, 1981), 25.
[19] Ibid, 46-47.
[20] Philip Cody, How God Works in Christian Marriage, 25-28.
[21] Lawler, Marriage and the Catholic Church, 15.

©2008 Daniel Gullotta

[Index of Commentaries by Daniel Gullotta]