THE SACRAMENT OF MATRIMONY
1. NATURE AND PURPOSE OF THE 1.
SACRAMENTOF MATRIMONY
The Sacrament of Matrimony is the Sacrament by
which man and woman unite themselves before God to
found a Christian family; human love is made into
GODLY love.
Why did God dispose man and woman for each
other?
God himself instituted marriage in paradise, when he
united Adam and Eve in an unbreakable bond.  “It is
not good that man is alone,” God created then Eve and
joined man and woman together.  The scripture
(Genesis) then concludes: For this reason, a man
leaves his father and mother, and clings to his wife,
and the two become one flesh.” (Mt. 19:4-6)
 
These words indicate the essential unity, and
indissolubility of marriage, characteristics inherent in
the very nature of the bond that unites the spouses.
Means a man can have only one
wife and woman only one
Unity
husband.
Means the union of marriage is
Indissolubility for life and cannot be dissolved
except by death.
The best way to express the deep meaning of marriage
is to speak of it in terms of “covenant”.  A covenant in
the scripture is a binding agreement or bond
between two parties.  God’s dealings with His people
were within the context of a covenant.  Both the Old
and the New Testament use marriage as a symbol of
God’s covenant which his chosen people.
This reality of marriage as a covenant has its basis in
the story of Creation (Genesis 2:23-24).
ONE “BODY” (Flesh) (v. 24) this expresses the
intimate partnership of life and love that a married
couple shares. “Become” – The day of their wedding
is just the beginning of a life-long process of becoming
one for the couple.
Dr. de Mesa, as cited by Efren Naῆo, O.S.A., in his
book Celebrations of life: Sacraments and Liturgy, has
listed the IMPORTANT ELEMENTS OF
MARRIAGE AS A COVENANT:
MARRIAGE IS A TOTAL AND
FAITHFUL COMMITMENT
Just as Yahweh was faithful to unfaithful Israel, so
Jesus to his unworthy disciples. Jesus’ covenant with
us is total and faithful: even if we abandon him, he
remains the same. “If we are unfaithful, he will still
remain faithful, for he cannot deny himself (2 Tim.
2:13).  
2. MARRIAGE IS AN ACCEPTING
COMMITMENT
God made covenant with His chosen people not by
reason of Israel’s worthiness by God’s own initiative.
We do not deserve to be loved yet God cares for us
and loves us. The creator simply loves us because we
are, with our strengths and weaknesses. He accepts us
as we are.
3. MARRIAGE IS AN EXCLUSIVE
COMMITMENT
God wants us to recognize no other God except Him.
He wants that our relationship with Him to be
exclusive: “Set your mind on God’s kingdom and His
justice before everything else.” Mt. 6:33. His desire is
our whole and undivided attention. Marital relationship
is exactly the same.
4. MARRIAGE IS A CONTINUING AND
GROWING COMMITMENT
Marital commitment is dynamic, on-going; it is a day-
to-day reality. Like love for God, it is never
accomplished once and for all, but only for the day that
lies immediately at hand.
CHRIST MADE MATRIMONY A SACRAMENT
1. To sanctify the love of husband and wife
2. To help them the Christians in rearing of the
children
 
MARRIED LOVE AND FAITHFULNESS
The married love of a man and a woman makes God
present in their marriage.  Faithfulness in marriage
means more than just avoiding to commit adultery.  It
also means growing in faith, trust and love in each
other and in the marriage union itself (CFC, 1596).
MARRIAGE SERVES LIFE: OFFSPRING
Married love is creative. It is open to the procreation
and education of children.  One of the sources of
fulfillment within marriage is the participation in
God’s own work of bringing forth the new human life. 
Children are themselves sign of God’s love because
they were born of God’s love sacramentally present in
the love of the husband and wife.
 PURPOSES OF MARRIAGE
1. Mutual love and companionship of the
spouses
Seen in the creation of woman as man’s helper, in her
being formed out of man’s rib:
“Then the man said, “She is now bone of my bone, and
flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for from
man she has been taken.”
Their mutual union in marriage is a divinely
established and of their mutual perfection and
happiness.
2. Begetting of children and the formation of a
family where children can be cared for, educated and
reared, in this way the human race is propagated.
Christ raised marriage to the dignity of a sacrament for
Christian.  Transformed by Christ into a Sacrament,
Christian marriage becomes the means by which the
Church is enriched with new members, the family of
God with new sons, heaven with new citizens.
The Sacrament makes the married state a means of
redemption and mutual sanctification for those who
embrace it.  Human love is transfigured that it
becomes the living symbol of the love between Christ
and the Church.
Marriage among Christians, celebrated at the altar, in
the presence of the priest who witnesses to and ratifies
the act, immediately creates the supernatural bond
which no human authority may lose, but only the death
of one of the spouses.
At the same time, it confers upon the spouses an
increase of sanctifying grace.  Their new state of life
is set under a continuous supernatural influence, by
which they enjoy the particular divine helps to carry
out worthily and to their mutual advantage the new
duties that their state imposes.
All that the Church legislates and teaches about
marriage, all that she demands from society and the
State, and from spouses. All that sacrifices and battles
she has to bear through the centuries in defense of
marriage – all these arise from her clear-sighted
view of marriage in itself and marriage as a
Sacrament.
 
2. SACRED SCRIPTURES AND THE
TEACHINGS
OF THE CHURCH ON MARRIAGE
Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and
woman in the image and likeness of God, and
concludes with a vision of the "wedding-feast of the
Lamb" (Revelation 19:7, 9). The bond of marriage is
compared to God's undying love for Israel in the Old
Testament, and Christ's love for his Church in the
New Testament of the Bible.
Jesus stresses the importance of the marriage bond in
his Ministry (Matthew 19:6, 8). The importance of
marriage is substantiated by the presence of Christ at
the wedding feast of Cana, where he began his public
ministry at the request of his mother Mary by
performing his first miracle (John 2). It is the Apostle
Paul who calls matrimony a great sacrament or
mystery, and who identifies the marriage of man and
woman with the unity of Christ and his Church. 
Genesis 2:24 "For this reason a man shall leave his
father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the
two shall become one flesh."
Mt. 19:4-6 = Jesus said:  Have you not read that the
Creator from the beginning made them male and
female and that he said: “This is why a man must leave
father and mother and cling to his wife, and the two
become one body.  They are no longer two, therefore
but one body.  So then what God has united, man must
not divide.”
Ephesians 5:25      "Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ loved the Church."
Ephesians 5:32-33 "This is a great mystery, but I speak
in reference to Christ and the church. In any case, each
one of you should love his wife as himself, and the
wife should respect her husband."
Eph. 5:25; 29-32 = Husbands should love their wives,
just as Christ loved the Church and sacrificed himself
for her to make her holy… A man never hates the
Church, because it is his body – and we are its living
parts.  For this reason, a man must leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will
become one body.  The mystery has many
implications:  but I am saying it applies to Christ and
the Church.
Vat. II LG 1 No. 11 – Finally Christian spouses, in
virtue of the sacrament of matrimony signify and
partake of the mystery of that unity and fruitful love
which exists between Christ and His Church (cf. Eph.
5:32).  The spouses thereby help each other to attain to
holiness in their married life and by the rearing and the
education of their children.  And so, in their state and
order of life, they have their own special gift among
the people of God.
GS 1 No. 48 – The intimate partnership of married life
and love has been established by the Creator and
qualified by His law. It is rooted in the conjugal
covenant of irrevocable personal consent
3. THE MATTER AND FORM OF
MATRIMONY
The matter of the matrimony – is the marriage
contract
The form the words that expresses the free consent to
this contract.
The rite consists in the mutual consent and the joining
of the pair, in the blessings and giving of the rings, and
in the invocation and exhortations.
SYMBOLS OF MARRIAGE
1. Arrhae – symbolizes sufficiency of material
possessions, which they may use to attain eternal
life.
2. Rings – symbolize mutual love in an
unbroken loyalty.
Accompanied by the witnesses and relatives, the bride
and the groom enter the Church, kneeling on the
benches prepared for them at the altar.
The groom as the head of the family takes his place on
the right; and the bride kneels at his left side.  The
bride is dressed in white – symbol of purity and bears
a crown on her head to signify that in the family she
should reign in goodness and in grace.
The Church upholds and promotes marriage by
proclaiming it as central in God’s plan as well as for
human society, its essential characteristics are the
permanent, exclusive and binding qualities of the
marriage bond (cf. GS 48).
Premarital Instructions is arranged at the diocesan or
inter-parish level, should be obligatory for all engaged
couples.  They will have to reflect on the nature of the
marriage relationship, the joys and problems of
married life, and the responsibilities they will assume
toward each other and their children.
4. THE SPIRITUAL EFFECTS OF THE
SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE
1. It confirms the essential sanctity of marriage –
a.1. its unity and indissolubility
a.2. its ends of mutual love and perfection
a.3. it elevates the natural institution to something
supernatural
a.4. the begetting and educating of children
a.5. making it a participation in the love Christ bears
for His spouse the Church.
2. It increases sanctifying grace and confers
the sacramental grace.
It entitles the spouses to all the divine help they will
need for a happy and holy married life.  The
dispositions and cooperation of the spouses who
receive the Sacrament will of course determine the
degree of grace conferred.
JURIDICAL EFFECTS OF MARRIAGE
1. It gives the right to each partner over the other
for the fulfillment of the rights of marriage.
2. It assures the legitimacy of the children born
of the union
3. It carries with it the obligation to live
together.
 
5. DUTIES OF CHRISTIAN SPOUSES
1. To love and help each other and to remain
faithful until death
2. To accept the children which God may give
them and to train them for Christian living.
Christian marriage is the union of two baptized, man
and woman, who freely give themselves to each other
in a lifelong covenant of love.  Their relationship
imitates the love of Christ for his Church (Eph 5. 2f),
and manifests that love for others to see.  Christ
condemns divorce by saying “What God has joined
together, let no man asunder.” (Mt. 19:6).
To receive Matrimony worthily, Catholics should be in
the state of grace. Catholics should prepare for a happy
marriage by:
1. having a clean and not too long courtship of
which their parents approve.
2. Consulting the parish priest at least one
month before marriage
Can a Catholic Christian marry a person from
another religion?
The Church does not generally favor mixed
marriage because:
1. The Church is interested in the happiness of
her children
2. Such marriage easily results in the loss or
neglect of Faith on the part of the Catholic
3. Disagreement on fundamental principles of
morality
4. Lead to the neglect of the religious education
of the children
However, the Church grants dispensations from this
rule in individual cases.
What should be done if a Catholic wants to marry a
non-Catholic Christian?
Church approval must be obtained for the wedding.
This is because a so-called “mixed” (that is,
interdenominational) marriage requires from both
partners a special fidelity to Christ, so that the scandal
of Christian division, which has still not been
remedied, does not continue in miniature and perhaps
even lead to giving up the practice of the faith.
What is the Church’s stance on people who are
divorced and remarried?
She accepts them lovingly, following Jesus’ example.
Anyone who divorces after being married in the
Church and then during the lifetime of the spouse
enters into a new union obviously contradicts Jesus’
clear demand for the indissolubility of marriage.
The Church cannot abolish this demand. This
retraction of fidelity is contrary to the EUCHARIST,
in which it is precisely the irrevocable character of
God’s love that the Church celebrates. That is why
someone who lives in such a contradictory situation is
not admitted to Holy COMMUNION.
Far from treating all specific cases alike, Pope
Benedict XVI speaks about “painful situations” and
calls on pastors “to discern different situations
carefully, in order to be able to offer appropriate
spiritual guidance to the faithful involved” (Apostolic
Exhortation Sacramentum caritatis, 29).

What does it mean to say that the family is a

“Church in miniature”?
What the Church is on a large scale, the family is on a
small scale: an image of God’s love in human
fellowship. Indeed, every marriage is perfected in
openness to others, to the children that God sends, in
mutual acceptance, in hospitality and being for others.
Nothing in the early Church fascinated people more
about the “New Way” of the Christians than their
“domestic churches”. Often someone “believed in the
Lord, together with all his household; and many
believed and were baptized” (Acts 18:8). In an
unbelieving’s world, islands of living faith were
formed, places of prayer, mutual sharing, and cordial
hospitality.
ROME, Corinth, Antioch, the great cities of antiquity,
were soon permeated with domestic churches that were
like points of light. Even today families in which
Christ is at home are the leaven that renews our
society.