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Matrimony
- By Anne Van Tilburg
- Published 04/10/2008
- Sacraments
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Matrimony, from the very beginning of the human race, has been a natural contract between husband and wife. For Christians it is something more. It is one of the seven Sacraments.
St. Paul, writing to the Christians of Ephesus, says of marriage: "This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church." (Eph 5:32)
This means that among Christians, marriage is not only a natural contract, but it is something sacred and holy. In other words, it is one of the Sacraments instituted by Christ.
The Council of Trent and the Fathers of the Church have always taught that Matrimony is to be numbered among the Sacraments of the New Law.
The word sacrament was used by the Latins to mean an oath. Later it was used to signify something sacred and holy. In this sense it is used in St. Paul's Epistle.
The Christian world had to wait fifteen hundred years for Protestantism to deny Christian marriage as a Sacrament. So, if Protestants are right in this, the whole Church founded by Christ was in error for the first fifteen centuries of its existence. Christ raised marriage to the dignity of a Sacrament, giving grace to the husband and wife to do their duties loyally and unselfishly towards one another, and towards their children, because the whole of society depends on the home. If the homes of the nation are corrupt, the whole of society is like a river that is poisoned at its source.
Jesus Christ in raising marriage to the dignity if a Sacrament, also restored its former insolubility, "Moses," he said to the Jews, "by reason of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so." Now He, a greater than Moses, says from henceforth:
"What God has joined together, let no man put asunder." (Matt. 19: Mark 10:)
The Apostles, surprised, asked the same question again, and Christ answered: " "Whosoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." (Mark 10:11-12) Thus our Savior in saying: "What God has joined together let no man put asunder," declared that no man, nor any legislation made by man, can validly dissolve the marriage contract, because it is a bond till death, that has been ratified by God Himself.
St. Paul, with these words of Christ in his mind, wrote to the Corinthians: "To those that are married not I, but the Lord command that the wife depart not from her husband. And if she depart, that she remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife." (1 Cor.7:10-11)
St. Paul, writing to the Christians of Ephesus, says of marriage: "This is a great mystery, and I mean in reference to Christ and the Church." (Eph 5:32)
This means that among Christians, marriage is not only a natural contract, but it is something sacred and holy. In other words, it is one of the Sacraments instituted by Christ.
The Council of Trent and the Fathers of the Church have always taught that Matrimony is to be numbered among the Sacraments of the New Law.
The word sacrament was used by the Latins to mean an oath. Later it was used to signify something sacred and holy. In this sense it is used in St. Paul's Epistle.
The Christian world had to wait fifteen hundred years for Protestantism to deny Christian marriage as a Sacrament. So, if Protestants are right in this, the whole Church founded by Christ was in error for the first fifteen centuries of its existence. Christ raised marriage to the dignity of a Sacrament, giving grace to the husband and wife to do their duties loyally and unselfishly towards one another, and towards their children, because the whole of society depends on the home. If the homes of the nation are corrupt, the whole of society is like a river that is poisoned at its source.
Jesus Christ in raising marriage to the dignity if a Sacrament, also restored its former insolubility, "Moses," he said to the Jews, "by reason of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so." Now He, a greater than Moses, says from henceforth:
"What God has joined together, let no man put asunder." (Matt. 19: Mark 10:)
The Apostles, surprised, asked the same question again, and Christ answered: " "Whosoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." (Mark 10:11-12) Thus our Savior in saying: "What God has joined together let no man put asunder," declared that no man, nor any legislation made by man, can validly dissolve the marriage contract, because it is a bond till death, that has been ratified by God Himself.
St. Paul, with these words of Christ in his mind, wrote to the Corinthians: "To those that are married not I, but the Lord command that the wife depart not from her husband. And if she depart, that she remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife." (1 Cor.7:10-11)