Matrimony

The goods of matrimony, according to St. Augustine

"All these," says Saint Augustine, "are the goods for which a marriage is good: offspring, faith, the sacrament. " "In the faith it is provided that outside the conjugal bond there should be no union with another or with another; in the offspring that they should be lovingly received, benignly nourished, religiously educated; in the sacrament then, that the marriage should not be dissolved, and that the postponed or the postponed, not even by reason of offspring, should be united with others. This is like the rule of marriage by which the fecundity of nature is ennobled and the dishonesty of incontinence is regulated. "142"143

differences b/w the three definitions of marriage

"Community between man and woman "93 is equivalent to "union of man and woman" of the classical definition: "union" directly indicates the relationship or bond, that is, the formality; while "community" indicates the totality of the two persons united, the subjects of the relationship. All three formulas express the commonality of life. According to the classical definition, it is specified by stability and by the ordination to the generation and education of children. In the conciliar formula, the specific traits of the community of life between man and woman are intimacy and conjugal love; in the codified formula, the specific traits are that it includes the whole of life and is ordered to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring.

Ends of marriage in Vatican II

"Marriage, however, was not instituted solely for procreation; but the very character of the indissoluble covenant between the persons and the good of the children demand that the mutual love of the spouses also have its proper manifestations, develop and reach maturity. And therefore, even if the offspring, very often so fervently desired, do not exist, marriage endures as a custom and communion of all life and preserves its value and its indissolubility" (GS 50). Marriage, therefore, serves to develop and bring to maturity the mutual love of the spouses; their communion of all life is ordered not exclusively to procreation but benefits themselves.

"The essential properties of marriage are

"The essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility" (CIC 1056).

Second good of marriage

"The second good of marriage, mentioned by St. Augustine, as we have said, is the good of faith, which is the mutual fidelity of the spouses in the fulfillment of the marriage contract; so that what is due to this contract sanctioned according to divine law..."

The sacrament as a good of marriage

"designates the indissolubility of the bond and at the same time the elevation and consecration, made by Christ, of the contract as an efficacious sign of grace "148.

Aramaic Gen 1:27

"he created them male and his spouse." the creation of male and female man is considered directly as the creation of the conjugal couple.

Pope Benedict on polygamy and divorce

"one must keep in mind first of all that biblical revelation is deeply rooted in history. God's plan is progressively manifested in it and slowly implemented through successive stages, despite human resistance. God chooses a people and patiently works on its education. Revelation adapts itself to the cultural and moral level of distant epochs and thus relates facts and customs, for example, fraudulent maneuvers, violent interventions, extermination of populations, without explicitly denouncing their immorality; this is explained by the historical context" (VD 42).

fatherhood occupies a central place in family life and in the very structure of the people of Israel:

(a) the father and mother must be respected (cf. Ex 20:12; 21:15, 17; Prv 23:22), and the father becomes the bearer of divine blessing (cf. Gen 27), teacher of the family (cf. Ex 12:3ff), and the one who passes on the faith to the children (cf. Ps 78); b) the first generations of Israel are called "the fathers" (cf. Ps 22:4; 106:7); and it is applied especially to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob54; c) and, as a result of the inseparable unity between the marriage blessing and the fulfillment of the promise, marriage possesses an absolute value. Therefore, "a consciously practiced celibacy would in the Old Testament be devoid of all meaning, indeed it could be considered only as disobedience to the original natural-supernatural commandment to multiply and as lack of faith in the promise made to Abraham.

The goodness of marriage was amply supported by the Fathers and the ecclesiastical writers of the first centuries in their disputes against those who rejected marriage and conjugal relations.

1 Tim 4:1-3 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, 3 who forbid marriage Saint Irenaeus of Lyon refers, for example, to the followers of the heretics Saturninus and Marcion. They, to whom he gives the name encratites, proclaimed abstinence from contracting marriage, in opposition to God, who had created man and woman in the beginning for the propagation of the human race55. Clement Alexandrinus dedicates the entire book III of the Stromata to the defense of marriage and the use of marriage against those who rejected them because of their dualistic errors and against those who chose continence while despising marriage. Even Saint Augustine, in order to prevent any Manichean tergiversation, defended the goodness of marriage from its origin, affirming that it is the first natural bond of human society56.

in the encyclical Arcanum (February 10, 1880) of Leo XIII.

1) the Lord raised marriage itself, that is, the contract, to the dignity of a sacrament163; 2) marriage is a sacrament because it is a sacred sign which produces grace and renders the image of the mystical marriage of Christ with the Church, which is represented by the conjugal bond, which is nothing other than marriage itself164.

The sacramentality of marriage is taught by the Magisterium in the first place when it expounds the doctrine on the sevenfold number of sacraments. In this regard, three documents of ecumenical councils should be mentioned:

1) the profession of faith prescribed by Clement IV (a. 1267) and Gregory X (a. 1272) to the Eastern Emperor Michael VIII Paleologus, with a view to union with the Roman Church, which he accepted fully, through his legates, before the Second Council of Lyon (a. 1274)130. 1274)130; 2) the bull of union of the Armenians of the Council of Florence (a. 1439)131; 3) the first of the canons of the Council of Trent on the sacraments in general, published in session 7132.

When was the specific meaning of sacrament applied to marriage?

12th c. the anonymous author of the Summa Sententiarum

Bride of Christ in St. Paul

2 Cor 11:2; Eph 5:21-33 that the spousal bond between Christ and the Church, in addition to being more explicit, is presented in relation to the marriages contracted by Christians.

Gen on marriage

2:18 Then the Lord God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him. but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; 22 and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman,[c] because she was taken out of Man."[d] 24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Nuptial dimensions of Joannine Lit

3:27 John answered, "No one can receive anything except what is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him. 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice; therefore this joy of mine is now full. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease."[j] Wedding Feast at Cana In order to understand the full Christological value of the story, the temporal context in which it is situated is important4. The third day (Jn 2:1) is the sixth from the initial day of the gospel. On the sixth day in the book of Genesis-whose beginning is identical to John's gospel, God created man and woman. Furthermore, in the Old Testament God's theophany to Israel takes place on the third day (cf. Ex 19:16-18), and the third day will also be that of Christ's Resurrection. The story of the wedding at Cana can therefore be considered as an anticipated reference to the Paschal Mystery in which Christ brings to completion the beginning of humanity and the beginning of Israel.

Key Synoptic passages about marriage

4 He answered, "Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one'?[a] 6 So they are no longer two but one.[b] What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder." 7 They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?" 8 He said to them, "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity,[c] and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman, commits adultery."

the two reasons for the inherent indissolubility of the conjugal bond,

: the mutual personal gift and the good of the children

A summary of the history of the covenant between God and his people is also found in the Song of Songs.

A summary of the history of the covenant between God and his people is also found in the Song of Songs. The book presents three phases of the love between man and woman: their first meeting, the loss of the beloved and, finally, his or her finding.

Marriage and covenant

According to Israel's faith in creation, marriage is a divine institution. This sacredness of marriage acquired a new dimension when God renewed the original blessing with Abraham, together with the divine promise to make him the father of a great people to whom he would give the land of Canaan (cf. Gn 12:2,7; 13:16; 22:17). Against this salvific-historical background, marriage becomes an instrument for the realization of God's covenant with Abraham and his descendants (cf. Gn 17:2-8), who in the light of the New Testament are Christ and those baptized in Christ (cf. Gal 3:26-29). Without marriage, in fact, the promise made to Abraham could not have taken place53.

Aquinas on the reasons for divorce and polygamy in the Old Testament

According to St. Thomas, God dispensed from the law of monogamy the righteous of the Old Testament, who acted internally inspired by God and their conduct would become, by their example, a cause of exemption for their descendants. The reason for such a dispensation would have been the need to multiply the people who gave true worship to God.50 The reason for this dispensation would have been the need to multiply the people who gave true worship to God. In the case of repudiation, St. Thomas tends towards the opinion that it was allowed "not to achieve a greater good, as in the case of the dispensation for polygamy, but to prevent a worse evil, to which the Jews were led by the corruption of their wrathful appetite "51. In particular, "as the Fathers commonly teach, the reason for the divine permission to repudiate the wife was the intention to avoid uxoricide "52.

Saint Robert Bellarmine

Against Melchiorre Cano, the doctrine of the inseparability of marriage contract and sacrament found a strong proponent in Saint Robert Bellarmine (1542-1621). He sees the sacramentality of marriage not only in its constitutive act but also as a permanent reality, similar to what happens in the Eucharist144. He explains that Christ did not institute this sacrament by establishing a new sacramental sign, but by raising the marriage contract in use among men to the dignity of a sacrament, attributing to it a new meaning and promise of grace145.

Why is procreation/upbringing a superior end to mutual good of the spouses?

Aquinas provides no explanation, perhaps because at the time it seemed obvious. At a certain point, however, he offers an indication, which may be the key to the explanation of his doctrine: "Marriage is ordered primarily to the common good, because of its principal end, which is the good of the offspring; but because of its secondary end it is also ordered to the good of the spouses "113. The relationship between primary and secondary ends is thus similar to the relationship between the common good and the particular good, which are not opposed to each other, but on the contrary are mutually exclusive.

ends of marriage

Aquinas: 1) procreation and upbringing of children and 2) mutual help

If the sacramentality of marriage derives from the baptized condition of the spouses, what role does faith play in it?

As a first answer, we can recall the general doctrine on faith in relation to the sacraments: "The sacraments [...] not only presuppose faith, but with words and sensible things (verbis et rebus) nourish it, strengthen it and express it; therefore they are called sacraments of faith" (SC 59).

Strict view of Adam and Eve in the Fathers

At the same time, several Fathers argued for the superiority of virginity by linking marriage to the sinful condition, as if it were a postlapsarian institution. Some such as St. Gregory of Nyssa57, St. John Chrysostom58, St. Jerome59, St. Maximus the Confessor60, and St. John Damascene61 point out that before sin, when there was no death, Adam and Eve were virgins, and were united sexually only after the fall. The original condition of man would therefore be virginity, and procreation would have taken place without sexual intercourse. The marriage of the origins would therefore be a different institution from the one we know after sin, which involves the loss of virginity. St. Jerome goes further and goes so far as to say that the command to grow and multiply was issued after the expulsion from paradise62.

Schools of thought regarding divorce

At the time of Christ the rabbis disputed over the interpretation of the sufficient grounds for divorce and were practically divided into two schools: those who followed the interpretation of Rabbi Shammay, who emphasized the word 'erwat (shame) and required ignominious conduct in the woman, i.e. adultery; and those who followed Rabbi Hillel, who focused on the word dabar (something) and admitted many other less serious grounds.

Basilio Petra

Believes that at death the two spouses lose their juridical marriage, but not their eternal marriage

Melchiorre Cano (1509-1560) on marriage

But it was especially Melchiorre Cano (1509-1560) who reshaped the theory that separated the sacrament from the marriage contract. Faced with the Protestant reformers, who denied the sacramentality of marriage considering it a res profana, he thought to find a defense by placing the sacramentality in the sacred form of the celebration through the intervention of the minister of the Church142, so that, in his opinion, the form of the sacrament would consist in the sacred words of the priest who blesses the marriage.

Marriage in the gospels

Cana, "let no no man..." Along with these two particularly clear Gospel passages, all the other passages in which Jesus' positive attitude toward marriage and conjugal life is manifested through comparisons and parables - about the reality of childbirth (cf. Jn 16:21), on the wedding (cf. Mt 22:1-14; 25:1-13), on the bridegroom (Mk 2:19-20) - and which appears far from condemning the conjugal union, the woman and the children (cf. Mt 19:13-15), Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Luther's error on matrimony

Condemned by Trent: That it is an invention of the Church, not instituted by Christ

Beginning of personalism and matrimony

Dietrich von Hildebrand18, a personalist philosopher who was part of the Gotinga circle led by Husserl, is considered the forerunner of the personalist renewal of the theology of marriage with the publication of the book Marriage in 1929. The path taken was to emphasize the primacy of conjugal love in marriage, as Pius XI teaches in 1930 Casti Conubii But the encyclical drew protest, and this was the first step toward the de-construction of marriage that is visible today. Other authors of this movement, on the other hand, such as von Hildebrand himself or Saint John Paul II in his book Love and Responsibility, manage to integrate the personalist vision with what we can call the institutional one. According to Illanes22 , these two paths that the phenomenology of married life takes ultimately depend on whether subjectivity is considered as closed in on itself: the person as an autonomous being; or as an open reality: the person as a co-existential being.23

Marriage in other books of the Old Testament

Essa è in forma di benedizione (berakâ)8. Dapprima viene espressa lode e gratitudine a Dio: «Benedetto sei tu, Dio dei nostri padri, e benedetto per tutte le generazioni è il tuo nome! Ti benedicano i cieli e tutte le creature per tutti i secoli!» (Tb 8,5). «Tu hai creato Adamo e hai creato Eva sua moglie, perché gli fosse di aiuto e di sostegno. Da loro due nacque tutto il genere umano. Tu hai detto: "Non è cosa buona che l'uomo resti solo; facciamogli un aiuto simile a lui"» (v. 6). Ecco quindi la richiesta o supplica che costituisce la terza parte della berakâ, introdotta con «ora (et nunc)»: «Degnati di avere misericordia di me e di lei e di farci giungere insieme alla vecchiaia» (v. 7)9. the Lord was witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Has not the one God made[g] and sustained for us the spirit of life?[h] And what does he desire? Godly offspring. So take heed to yourselves, and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth. 16 "For I hate[i] divorce, says the Lord the God of Israel, Mal 2:14-15

Meaning of marriage for St. Bonaventure

For Bonaventure, the sacrament of marriage was instituted by God in officium in Paradise and, after sin, in remedium169 He attributes to the outward sign of early marriage - the manifestation of consent and the copula171 - a double meaning: naturally it signifies the love between the spouses; by faith and divine institution it signifies the union between Christ and the Church, as well as the union between God and the soul. The unity and harmony between the order of creation and of redemption, without affecting the gratuitousness of the order of redemption, he explains in the following way: the natural sign is capable of signifying the union between Christ and the Church, but it does not signify this by itself but by divine institution172.

Herbert Doms

For Doms, the meaning of marriage is the union of two that finds its deepest expression and most intimate and precious realization in the conjugal act. Since procreation would be a biological consequence of sexual union, it would have full value without any reference to offspring. Therefore, the conjugal community has in itself its proper end not subordinated to the end of procreation which is extrinsic to the relationship between the two. The essential end of marriage would thus be the personal end; while the second, biological end would be accidental117.

Vatican II on marriage

GS 48 The intimate partnership of married life and love has been established by the Creator and qualified by His laws, and is rooted in the conjugal covenant of irrevocable personal consent. Hence by that human act whereby spouses mutually bestow and accept each other a relationship arises which by divine will and in the eyes of society too is a lasting one. For the good of the spouses and their off-springs as well as of society, the existence of the sacred bond no longer depends on human decisions alone. For, God Himself is the author of matrimony, endowed as it is with various benefits and purposes

"Good of the spouses"

Hence the consideration of "mutual help" as an end of marriage, a terminology that became frequent in theological and canonical treatises and that can be found in the Code of Canon Law of 1917102 and in the encyclical Casti connubii103. The new Code of Canon Law, in harmony with the conciliar document Gaudium et spes, has abandoned the terminology of the 1917 Code and no longer speaks of "mutual aid" but of "the good of the spouses "104.

Marriage symbols in the prophets

Hosea had to marry a prostitute; Ezekiel and Jeremiah talk about how Judah and Israel are like adulterous sisters. Isaiah 54:5 For your Maker is your husband, the LORD of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. Malachi 2:13-16 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition 13 And this again you do. You cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor at your hand. 14 You ask, "Why does he not?" Because the Lord was witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. 15 Has not the one God made[a] and sustained for us the spirit of life?[b] And what does he desire? Godly offspring. So take heed to yourselves, and let none be faithless to the wife of his youth. 16 "For I hate[c] divorce, says the Lord the God of Israel, and covering one's garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless."

Scott Hahn offers the following interpretation of the biblical account of Adam and Eve

How is it possible that the first couple refused to obey the divine command? Scott Hahn offers the following interpretation of the biblical account4. Adam's solitude indicates that Eve's creation perfects the divine image in humanity. However, the first couple had to bring it to completion: God wanted man and woman to imitate, in the human family, the communion that lies at the center of the divine family. In humanity, this likeness involves loving to the point of being ready to lay down one's life for the beloved. It is for this reason that God allowed the devil to test Adam's love for Eve.

Relationship between the two ends of marriage

However, although the good of the spouses would lose its goodness if it were opposed to the good of the children, it is also certain - as personalist thought shows - that the good of the children would lose its reason for being good if it were opposed to the good of the spouses: both ends are co-essential, and marriage does not find its raison d'être nor is it constituted by only one of the ends. This is the fundamental point. To speak of interconnected ends means that married life does not find its proper development on two parallel and independent tracks. In fact, fatherhood is truly a response in conformity with the divine call to procreate (cf. Gn 1:22) when it takes place within the context of the sincere gift of self to the other person. Otherwise, procreation would be comparable to that of animals that generate to give continuity to the species.124 At the same time, the sincere gift of self in marriage occurs with the exclusive and total donation as sexually complementary. Excluding the donation of paternity or maternity, the union would not be matrimonial, and sexual acts would not correspond with its unitive meaning. In this way, sexuality would be presented as a force ordered to pleasure or self-realization, forgetting that man is realized in the sincere gift of self125.

Celibacy in the old testament

However, there is no shortage of signs of a certain relativization of marriage in the life of the Jewish people that make a positive evaluation of celibacy possible. We have, for example, the case of Jeremiah, who had to observe celibacy by the explicit command of God (cf. Jer 16:1-2). As Saint John Paul II explains, "this was a 'prophetic sign', symbolizing the future abandonment and destruction of the land and the people", thus not undermining the Old Testament tradition according to which "marriage, as a source of fertility and procreation in relation to offspring, was a religiously privileged state: and privileged by revelation itself "59. It was also common practice that only virgins could accompany the ark of the covenant by playing the kettledrums. And from the middle of the second century B.C. there appeared the community of the Essenes, within which some practiced celibacy or abstinence from sexual relations with their spouses for a more or less prolonged period of time60.

celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven enlightens Christian marriage,

If celibacy for the sake of the Kingdom of heaven enlightens Christian marriage, it must be a sign of the mystery that reveals the ideal of Christian marriage, the mystery of union between Christ and the Church.

Church Fathers on marriage

Ignatius: with the consent of the bishop Pope St. Callistus: Roman women can marry lower ranking men the First Council of Toledo (a. 400): "Whoever has no wife and has a concubine in her place, let him not be rejected from communion; provided that he is content with one woman, wife or concubine as he pleases "80. The Council of Elvira, in the early years of the fourth century, forbade successive marriages with the sister of the deceased wife.81 Similarly, the Council of Arles (a. 314) forbade the marriage of Christian women to pagan men82 Clement of Alexandria, 4th c. nuptial blessings, Tertullian The participation of presbyters in the wedding is evidenced by canon 7 of the Council of Neocesarea (in the second decade of the fourth century), which forbade them to participate in the wedding feasts of those married for the second time, so as not to be seen to approve of them91. he 33rd of the Armenian canons (towards the end of the fourth century) considers the intervention of the presbytery in the wedding and its blessing as an apostolic precept94 According to Clement of Alexandria, "marriage is also sanctified when it is performed according to the Logos, that is, if the union is submitted to God and is lived "with a sincere heart and in the fullness of faith, when we have purified our hearts from a bad conscience and washed our bodies with pure water and maintain our profession of hope, because He who promised is faithful""97

The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the Catholic faith on the sacramentality of marriage as follows:

Il Catechismo della Chiesa Cattolica sintetizza così la fede cattolica sulla sacramentalità del matrimonio: «Questa grazia del Matrimonio cristiano è un frutto della Croce di Cristo, sorgente di ogni vita cristiana [...]. Il Matrimonio cristiano diventa, a sua volta, segno efficace, sacramento dell'alleanza di Cristo e della Chiesa. Poiché ne significa e ne comunica la grazia, il matrimonio fra battezzati è un vero sacramento della Nuova Alleanza» (CCC 1615 e

What then would be the specific meaning of the term sacrament ascribed to early marriage?

In conclusion, in a manner consistent with the classical definition of sacrament, for both Bonaventure and Aquinas the attribution of this term to early marriage occurs improperly or metaphorically because it was not directly instituted according to the proper notion of sacrament. At the same time, the task assigned by God to the original marriage was not only to propagate the human race, but also to propagate the children of God through the same generation. Nevertheless, this grace is not properly sacramental in nature. The marriage of the origins therefore has a singular dignity, but one which, according to the logic of typological unity, is inferior to the sacramental dignity182.

the case of Catholics who in practice manifest non-belief. How can their faith be expressed which is in practice non-existent?

In reality, the celebration of the sacrament of marriage is always an expression of faith and presupposes it; moreover, it nourishes and strengthens it, unless the bride and groom place the obstacle of unwillingness to receive sacramental grace in the way. The sacrament therefore expresses faith both objectively (the faith proclaimed) and subjectively (the faith which welcomes the proclamation).

The objective expression of the mystery of the spousal union between Christ and the Church may not, however, be matched by the same believing awareness on the part of those who marry. In this case, the objective content of faith expressed by the matrimonial consent is assumed only partially, that is, limited to the elements of the marriage of creation. Does such a discordance between the objectively expressed content of faith and its partial subjective assumption prevent there from being a true sacrament? Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

In the other sacraments such a discordance does not prevent their valid realization, because the minister acts in persona Christi et Ecclesiae, and it is the faith of the Church which is expressed by the sacramental gesture and words of the minister. In marriage, however, those who marry act in their own name to realize the gift of self; hence the specificity of the question with reference to marriage.

It can be said, therefore, that the indissolubility of marriage corresponds to _________, but it is not based on ________: it is based on _______.

It can be said, therefore, that the indissolubility of marriage corresponds to the demands of love, but it is not based on love: it is based on the mutual giving of the conjugal covenant.

The good of the children demands the indissolubility of the conjugal bond.

It demands it not insofar as it involves the transmission of physical life - for this alone there would be no need for a family founded on marriage - but insofar as it includes the education of the offspring, and not for a few years but up to human maturity; in fact, the work of education requires the intervention of both parents137. It also requires it because the child has a relationship of filiation to both parents who are bound together forever. If the bond between the parents were to dissolve, the child's relationship to them would undergo continuous violence and a lacerating contradiction would be introduced into the very core of his human nature as a sociable person.

Pius IX, letter of 1852 to King Victor Emmanuel,

It is a dogma of faith that marriage has been elevated by N.S.G.C. to the dignity of a Sacrament, and it is the doctrine of the Catholic Church that the Sacrament is not an accidental quality added to the contract, but is of essence to marriage itself, so that the conjugal union between Christians is not legitimate, except in a Sacramental marriage, outside of which there is only a prior concubinage "

Why does recent magisterium not use the language fo hierarchy of ends?

It seems rather to be a choice in line with the renewal of the theology of marriage initiated by the personalist current in the first half of the twentieth century. In fact, the deepening on the primacy of love in the relationship between the spouses,

It was _______ who first laid the theoretical groundwork for him and other theologians later to accept that a true non-sacramental marriage could exist between baptized persons139.

It was Blessed Duns Scotus (1265-1308), with his concept of the sacramentality of marriage as something added to the marriage contract, who first laid the theoretical groundwork for him and other theologians later to accept that a true non-sacramental marriage could exist between baptized persons139.

John Paul II, in the apostolic exhortation Familiaris consortio, explains the sacramentality of marriage

John Paul II, in the apostolic exhortation Familiaris consortio, explains the sacramentality of marriage by indicating that the insertion of the spouses into the spousal covenant of Christ with the Church has already taken place in baptism and therefore, because they are baptized, that is, inserted into the mystery of Christ and the Church, their conjugal union is also assumed into the spousal charity of Jesus Christ190. The sacramentality of Christian marriage is presented as an ineluctable consequence of the baptized condition of the spouses. The Lord comes to meet them and they cannot withdraw from him, since they belong to him, inserted as they are in his spousal covenant with the Church. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Meaning of childbirth in Gen

The book of Genesis shows us the peculiar dignity of human generation compared to that of the animals. When Eve conceived and gave birth to Cain, her first son, she said, "I have acquired a man through the Lord" (Gen 4:1). Although the birth was the result of her union with Adam, the wife refers to the Lord's intervention as the origin of her son.

Bernardin Krempel

Krempel, for his part, argued that since marriage is a society, its end can only be one; specifically, it would consist in making possible in a manner worthy of man the union of life of both sexes. The spouses would be impelled to unite in order to achieve an intimate communion of life, in which they feel that they are complemented by each other; indeed, only in marriage would it be possible to achieve a full communion of life on both the physical and spiritual levels. The same, according to Krempel, does not apply to offspring, which can be generated outside of marriage and, if necessary, also educated. The crucial point, as we can see, is not so much to establish an order between two essential ends, but rather to give full meaning to marriage as such, without relating it to the transmission of human life: the end of procreation and education of offspring is thus considered an accidental good and extrinsic to marriage

Definition of marriage

Marriage is the union of a man and a woman that constitutes a consortium totius vitae ordered to the good of the offspring and the spouses.

Marriage as a sign

Marriage, on the other hand, is "a 'historical' sign for those who walk on earth, a sign of the earthly Christ who agreed to unite himself to us and gave himself up to the point of giving his blood" (AL 161), and has as its symbolic values the fact of being "a peculiar reflection of the Trinity" and of manifesting "the closeness of God who shares the life of the human being by uniting himself to it in the Incarnation, the Cross and the Resurrection" (AL 161).

Classic definition of marriage

Matrimonium est viri et mulieris maritalis coniunctio inter legitimas personas, individuam vitae consuetudinem retinens Union (coniunctio) indicates the gender to which marriage belongs: mutual bond or relationship. Maritalis is added to indicate the specific property of the relationship: not just any relationship, but the union of persons who form a unity through sexual complementarity, ordered to the generation and education of offspring and the good of the spouses91. This union involves and maintains an indivisible commonality92 of life (individuam vitae consuetudinem retinens), thus indicating the stability of the bond. Inter legitimas personas more accurately determines the subjects of the relationship of mutual conjugal membership (viri et mulieris), i.e. man and woman who are able according to the laws to establish such a union; which means that marriage has a social dimension and is regulated by law

Mutual Help: some reflections

Men and women help each other in many ways by providing each other with various goods, economic, cultural, health, etc.. Married life, which corresponds to the very nature of marriage, implies a specific good not found in other kinds of association between a man and a woman. It derives first of all from the gift of themselves, rooted in the instant in which they gave themselves to each other and gave rise to the conjugal community, and made effective on a daily basis. It follows that "in a fundamental and radical way, the conjugal good which each party receives is not so much the help of the other as the other himself, as an intimate companion in the common work "108.

St. Augustine on marriage

Moreover, the sacrament is such because it contains a sacred signification. In the case of the sacramentum nuptiarum a first res of the sacrament is conjugal inseparability119. There is, however, a res maior significata, namely, the inseparable spousal union between Christ and the Church, according to Eph 5:31-32120; this is the archetypal union with respect to conjugal unions among Christians121. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Love: act or habit?

On the contrary, if we say that love is a habit, we are asserting that in the will of the two lovers the history of their love remains imprinted, and it always keeps alive the hope with which they began life together, because it prevents love from being exhausted in the transience of a present experience. The growth of conjugal love as a habit increasingly guarantees its definitive character.6

Is ends of marriage a theoretical or practical question?

Practical: if good of the spouses is overemphasized at the expense of the procreation of offspring, then there is more argument for rendering the marital act sterile.

can matrimonial consent be a mechanical, empty repetition of gestures and words?

Since it is an act of mutual giving which constitutes a community of all life between man and woman, it cannot be an empty word202 . Moreover, since it manifests the mutual self-giving of two Christians, it objectively expresses the spousal mystery between Christ and the Church to which they belong,

St. John Paul II calls the marriage of the origins

St. John Paul II calls the marriage of the origins a primordial sacrament because it shows God's creative and saving initiative. However, the denomination occurs as an integral and central part of what he calls the sacrament of creation165, "understood as a sign that effectively transmits into the visible world the invisible mystery hidden in God from eternity. And this is the mystery of Truth and Love, the mystery of divine life, in which man truly participates.

JPII on celibacy and marriage

St. John Paul II confirms that neither the words of Christ reported in Mt 19:11-12 nor those of Paul in 1 Cor 7 provide "any basis for a supposed opposition, according to which the single (or unmarried), solely because of continence would constitute the class of the 'perfect', and, on the contrary, married persons would constitute the class of the 'imperfect' (or 'less perfect') "70. And he adds that on the relationship between marriage and virginity "that 'superiority' and 'inferiority' are contained within the limits of the very complementarity of marriage and continence for the Kingdom of God "71.

St. Paul in ____ refers to this theme and concretely to the relationship between marriage and celibacy or virginity.

St. Paul in chapter 7 of his first letter to the Corinthians refers to this theme and concretely to the relationship between marriage and celibacy or virginity. Counsel, good and better. Apostolic and eschatological reasons for marriage

non-baptized people who convert

St. Robert Bellarmine, in agreement with his explanation of the sacramentality of marriage, asserts that such marriages are true sacraments153. According to the saint, such was the common judgment of theologians in his day154, but there is no shortage of references to fifteenth-century theologians such as Thomas of Argentina and Peter of the Marsh155. The practice of the Church favors this judgment, because both in those centuries, and before and after, up to our days, spouses who are baptized have never been asked to remarry before the Church, they are not obliged to renew their matrimonial consent.

St. Thomas defined friendship as

St. Thomas defined friendship as a love of mutual goodwill founded on communion in the good

St. Thomas describes mutual help as

St. Thomas describes this end as "the mutual service which spouses render to one another in domestic matters "1 They refer to that commonality of life (a domestic life) which involves an indivisible familiarity (individua vitae consuetudo)106, not simply stable but specifically conjugal, with the intimacy characteristic of married people.

the marriage of the unbaptized signifies

Taking up the thought of St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas, the marriage of the baptized signifies the union between Christ and the Church in act; and the marriage of the unbaptized signifies it virtually200, or insofar as it has capacity201, but not in act.

The 1983 Code of Canon Law, again referring to marriage in facto esse, describes it as

The 1983 Code of Canon Law, again referring to marriage in facto esse, describes it as a "community (consortium) of all life between man and woman, by its nature ordered to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring" (CIC 1055 § 1).

Reason for repudiation

The biblical text is very general about the reason for repudiation. The expression "something shameful" corresponds to the Hebrew 'erwat dabar, which literally means "the nakedness of the thing "40.

The conciliar constitution Gaudium et spes describes marriage

The conciliar constitution Gaudium et spes describes marriage as "an intimate community of life and conjugal love" (GS 48).

According to the proper nature of typology, this fulfillment (of matrimony in Old Testament v. New Testament) follows a law of continuity and one of discontinuity.

The discontinuity appears in the way marriage signifies the mystery of the Incarnation and is an instrument of salvation73. As far as meaning is concerned, early marriage signified the mystery of the union between Christ and the Church in an indirect way since it was instituted directly as a natural task; After sin, having been instituted as a remedy for the wounds of sin, it directly signifies the mystery of the Incarnation insofar as it is in the Paschal Mystery that the victory over sin takes place. By virtue of its elevation to a sacrament of the New Law, its direct signification is the same as that of the marriage of the Old Covenant: the newness takes place with the appearance of virginity for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, to which it corresponds to directly signify the mystery of the Incarnation insofar as it is in the fullness of glory.

The expression "bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh" (Gn 2:23

The expression "bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh" (Gn 2:23) with which Adam calls the woman when she is presented to him by God, while manifesting an exultant spirit, is not in fact addressed by Adam to Eve because in this case he would have said "you are flesh from my flesh". Stating "she is flesh of my flesh" seems rather to be addressed to God, thus acquiring the value of a formal commitment before him.

Peter Ledesma

The impossibility of separating the contract from the sacrament through intention was well studied by Peter of Ledesma (†1616), who follows the same line as Bellarmine. The institution of Christ", he explains, "by uniting by itself two things - the contract and the sacrament - which by their nature are not necessarily united, prevents the intention of the minister from separating them, in a way analogous to how, by his instituting will, Christ has united in every sacrament two things which by their nature are not necessarily united, that is, being a sign and being an efficacious instrument of grace, so that the will of the minister cannot stop at the realization of the sign, excluding its efficacy150.

Repudiation in Deuteronomy

The law of Deuteronomy does not legalize either repudiation or polygamy, but it undoubtedly represents a recognition of both customs. It even devalues repudiation because it considers that the woman "has been defiled" by the second conjugal bond, so that to take her back afterwards "would be an abomination in the eyes of the Lord" (cf. Deut 24:3-4)43, as if she were an object of carnal traffic44. At the same time he is never praised, indeed he is blamed on more than one occasion: the husband is in fact invited not to abandon his first wife and seek others45, and he is warned not to repudiate her and, if he no longer loves her, he is not told to send her away46.

The novelty of virginity in the typological unity of salvation history does not suppress marriage but relativizes it.

The novelty of virginity in the typological unity of salvation history does not suppress marriage but relativizes it. In the present time, following the incarnation of Jesus, although it is a gift of God in the Church, it is not a gift for everyone, unlike what happened in the Old Testament46; now there are two possible ways of following Christ freely: marriage and celibacy. Such relativization shows that the new people of God are born only of water and the spirit.

Point of reference for the Fathers re: marriage

The nuptial blessing, although it is an indication of the sacred and not profane consideration of marriage and the related euchological texts manifest faith in the effects of grace of Christian marriage, is not the point of reference of the Fathers for the affirmation of the sanctity of marriage. Christian marriage, it is not the point of reference of the Fathers for the affirmation of the sanctity of marriage. Rather, it is the baptism of the spouses and the indissoluble unity of Christian marriage according to the paradigm of the spousal union between Christ and the Church.

Nuptial dimension of the synoptic gospels

The nuptial dimension of the work of salvation, already characteristic of the Old Covenant, is also present in the preaching of Jesus, albeit in a still veiled form. In his answer to the question of fasting, he alludes to himself as the bridegroom at the wedding: "Can the wedding guests fast when the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them: then on that day they will fast." (Mk 2:19-20)1. The parables of the royal wedding (Mt 22:1-14) and of the virgins, five wise and five foolish (Mt 25:1-13), in comparing the Kingdom of God to the wedding with explicit reference to the bridegroom, show that the theme was repeatedly present in Jesus' preaching. The title that in the Old Testament was attributed to Yahweh, that of being the bridegroom of his people, is now assigned to Jesus, although the identity of the bride remains as a veil and is still not well determined. Nor is the relationship of this nuptial image to the marriages of the members of the new messianic people clarified.

Magnum mysterium in the magisterium

The third interpretation made by patristics and, to some extent, also the first, are found in various documents of the Church's Magisterium. First of all, it is necessary to mention the Florentine Council, where the doctrine of the Roman Church on the sacraments is expounded: "Seventh is the sacrament of marriage, the symbol of the union of Christ and the Church, according to the words of the Apostle: 'This mystery is great; I say it with reference to Christ and the Church' (Eph 5:32) "31. The Council of Trent, in the dogmatic decree of session 24a on marriage, after having explained that Christ, the institutor of the sacraments, merited by his passion the grace which perfects conjugal love, confirms the indissoluble unity and sanctifies the spouses, continues: "This is what Paul the Apostle makes clear when he says: "And you husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her." (Eph 5:25); adding a little later: "This mystery is great; I say it with reference to Christ and the Church" (Eph 5:32) "32. The encyclical Casti connubii follows the teaching of the Florentine Council33 . The Second Vatican Council does the same, but with an important addition, since it also speaks of participation in the mystery of unity and love between Christ and the Church: "Christian spouses, by virtue of the sacrament of marriage, by which they are the sign of the mystery of unity and fruitful love which exists between Christ and the Church, and they participate in it (cf. Eph 5:32)" (LG 11). (LG 11). In another document, the same Council in some way makes the first patristic interpretation its own when it affirms that "the Creator of all things constituted conjugal society as the principle and foundation of human society, and by his grace made it a great sacrament in Christ and in the Church (cf. Eph 5:32)" (AA 11). (AA 11).

Outcome of Deuteronomy's repudiation laws

The written formalization of repudiation and the prohibition to take back the repudiated wife, if she had passed to a second marriage, served to defend the woman, being able to demonstrate her free status, and put a certain damper on the possible levity of the man in making the decision of repudiation, because it became final.

But already in those years, and especially since the end of the 1960s, a new pastoral challenge has given rise to a new debate which is still ongoing168.

This challenge is constituted by the growing number of baptized Catholics who, while distinguishing themselves from apostates, in practice manifest themselves as non-believers. Some of them refuse to marry before the Church and are only united civilly, but desire some recognition by the ecclesial community of the at least human legitimacy of their union.

Claim: lifelong marital fidelity requires being a superman

This hypothesis contains a fallacy: it wants to achieve a conjugal good - in the first and subsequent unions - which is supposedly unattainable. If the good pursued does not derive from the total, definitive gift, it is not the conjugal good, the good end of marriage, but a semblance of good, a mirage. It would not be marriage according to the original divine plan, with all its riches of humanity, but another kind of association between man and woman, which cannot really be called marriage.

New ideal of marriage

This reform entails a true redefinition of marriage, which is thus "understood essentially as a bond of emotional love that is characterized by its intensity - a bond that does not need to be directed beyond the partners and in which fidelity is ultimately subject to the desires of the individuals -. In such an intense marriage, the partners seek emotional fulfillment and remain united as long as they are able to find it "151.

Unity of marriage

Unity of Marriage The Lord in his answer to the Pharisees refers to Gen 2:24, to that verse which, starting from the story of the first human couple, establishes the fundamental norm for couples of husband and wife down the centuries: "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh". The first couple is monogamous and their condition is paradigmatic for subsequent unions between man and woman. Polygamy in either form (polyandry or polygyny) does not correspond to the original divine design.

Ephesians on marriage

Verse 21 serves as the guiding principle of the various personal relationships within the family: "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ." Verse 18: is the header: be filled with the Spirit.

Creation as covenant

What is proper and exclusive to the bǝrîṯ consists in the fact that the only subject is Javhè, because it is He who establishes it without there being a reciprocal or bilateral relationship with man: only God sets the obligations; only He can make the validity of His bǝrîṯ depend on the fulfillment of certain conditions; and the only guarantee Israel has is God's faithfulness to His word162. After analyzing the accounts of the institution of marriage in the first two chapters of the book of Genesis, we can recognize in them the same dynamic of bǝrîṯ: God himself is the author of marriage, and this sacred bond, endowed with multiple values and purposes, does not depend on the arbitrariness of man but on God (cf. GS 48).

Archetypal marriage according to the neighboring tribes of Israel

a divine couple or a divine human couple. In Israel, God transcends but blesses marriage

characteristics of a good friendship according to AL

a search for the good of the other, reciprocity, intimacy, tenderness, stability, and a similarity between friends that is built up through a shared life"

the letter of Pius VI (a. 1788) to the Bishop of Motula,

all cases concerning the marriages of the baptized are the responsibility of the Church, "because the marriage contract is truly and properly one of the seven sacraments of the Gospel Law "160.

All three formulas express the commonality of life.

ccording to the classical definition, it is specified by stability and by the ordination to the generation and education of children. In the conciliar formula, the specific traits of the community of life between man and woman are intimacy and conjugal love; in the codified formula, the specific traits are that it includes the whole of life and is ordered to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

tardēmāh

he second indication is when he uses the term tardēmāh to express the "torpor" that God brought down upon man before forming woman (cf. Gen 2:21). This term is used in the Old Testament when during sleep, or immediately after, something extraordinary happens. In the Pentateuch it appears once in the context of the covenant, when Abraham, by God's command, prepared a sacrifice and immediately afterwards a torpor fell upon him (cf. Gn 15:12): it was then that God began to speak to him and established a covenant with him.

St. Thomas Aquinas on the three institutions of marriage

insofar as it is ordered to the procreation of offspring, it was instituted by God before sin; insofar as it is a remedy for the wounds of sin, after the fall of Adam and Eve; insofar as it represents the union between Christ and the Church, it was instituted by Christ in the time of the New Law176. However, he specifies that according to the proper notion of a sacrament, which by its nature is to be a sign and a remedy, it was instituted as a sacrament of the Old Law after sin and with Christ as a sacrament of the New Law; in paradise it was instituted only as a natural task177.

Sexual differences

it is not possible to circumscribe biological sex as if it were a part of the whole, like an organ or an organic function: the body does not have a sex, but is sexed. Biological sexuality is established by genetic sex, determined by the cell chromosomes XX in women and XY in men; by gonadal sex, that is the internal and external sexual organs; and by somatic sex, identified by other sexual characteristics such as different bone structure and muscle physiognomy, or the peculiar anatomical structure and functioning of other organs. d Rafa: work/care, transitive v. immanent action, create distance/integrate. In fact, the human person is masculine and feminine in relation to the other, and in order to understand its own identity it needs sexual difference: without the woman there would be no man-person, but only the human person even if it had a male body. Eve, in her relationship with Adam and the world in the feminine way, makes known to Adam his masculine perspective towards the world and others and, consequently, his own identity as a man45.

Two loves

love of concupiscence and love of benevolence

There are two reasons for monogamy

mutual self-giving and the good of the children. Therefore, the dignity of the human person demands that he or she be born as the fruit of a love between parents that is an expression of total dedication and that he or she be welcomed into the family founded on marriage, in which the person is recognized and loved as such, that is, as a subject and not as an object for the satisfaction of the desires of others. Education also requires the joint work of both parents. All of this is made difficult by polygamy, in which children can certainly be procreated - even outside any family community - but cannot be welcomed and educated in a way adequate to their personal dignity.

Marriage is a conjugal community because...

not because there are actually children, but because it is internally structured as a place naturally - according to human nature - suited to welcome new human life and to care for and foster its development.

What is the "magnum sacramentum" of St. Paul?

some Fathers (Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Gregory Nanzianzen, John Chrys) who understand "this mystery" as referring to the whole of the preceding verses, that is, to the marriage of Christians, which, according to the Apostle, constitutes a great mystery, looking to Christ and the Church A second interpretation is provided by other Fathers and ecclesiastical writers (Tertullian, Origen, who, with regard to Eph 5:32, do not speak of marriage as a mystery, but attribute the "great mystery" only to the union between Christ and the Church. Several Fathers (Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome) explain the great mystery related to Christ not only with regard to becoming one flesh with the Church, but also with regard to leaving his father's house, in the incarnation. The third interpretation (Chrys, Isidore) lies in the connection that Chrysostom establishes between both mysteries: marriage is a great human mystery, but it is also a figure of that other great mystery which is the spousal union between Christ and the Church25.

Meaning of Gen 2:23 "

«Questa volta è osso dalle mie ossa, carne dalla mia carne» (Gn 2,23). L'uomo esprime così la sua ammirazione davanti alla donna con la quale poteva stabilire una relazione personale a lui confacente