DATA PRIVACY NOTICE

This session will be recorded

for sharing the lesson on various platforms
By staying on this call, you consent to being recorded.
If you do not consent to being recorded,
kindly drop from the call.
 TOPIC 23.6
THE TWO ESSENTIAL ENDS OF MARRIAGE

Reference: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1625-1642

 THE TWO ESSENTIAL ENDS OF MARRIAGE

Two Essential Ends What makes marriage good? God’s grace and the goods
of Marriage of marriage

Inseparability Begetting & raising children: a

of the two ends great good

Some guidelines in family The use

planning decisions of periodic continence
 Two Essential Ends of Marriage
“The matrimonial covenant is, by nature, ordained towards
the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children.”
CIC, can 1055
Cf. CCC 1601, 1660.

”It is not good for man to be alone; “God created man in his own image;
I will make him a helper fit for him… male and female he created them.
(so God created Eve, and Genesis continues) And God blessed them, saying,
therefore a man leaves father and mother, and ‘Be fruitful and multiply…”
cleaves to his wife, Gen 1:27-28
and they become one flesh.”
Gen 2:18-24

the two essential/objective/institutional ends: the two “good” is the integral perfection
ends the Author of nature intended of man as an image of God
for the institution of marriage called to eternal life in Jesus Christ.
(vis-à-vis subjective ends)
 What makes
marriage good?
Wholehearted and loving commitment to the exclusivity, permanence and openness
to life characteristic of conjugal love makes marriage:
◦ good for the spouses
sexuality thereby becomes the vehicle for their sincere and unconditional self-giving to each
other; and

◦ good for the procreation & upbringing of children

they are thereby born out of love (the marital act)
and assured of harmonious family life

the exclusivity, permanence and openness of life proper to married love

are the 3 “goods of marriage” (bona matrimonialia)
CCC 1643-1654

they are what make marriage good, perfective of the person

in love of God and of neighbor and growth in virtue.
 God’s grace
and the goods of marriage
Fidelity to the commitments of exclusivity, permanence,
and the fruitfulness of married love is a dynamic reality.
Parable of the Mustard Seed:
Mt 13:31-32

conjugal and parental love need continual growth, purification,

and completion in communion with Jesus Christ
CCC 1644

◦ need for God’s grace, obtained through prayer, the sacrament of Marriage,
and the reception of Confession and the Eucharist.

◦ need for our free cooperation with grace for a daily struggle.

“He would save his life will lose it;

but he who loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Mt 16:25
 Inseparability of the two ends
“The children are a living reflection of the love of the spouses” - John Paul II

Conjugal love is not meant

Children are deeply aware
to lead spouses to be
that they are fruit of the love
closed-up on themselves,
between their parents
but to open-up to a new life.

Married love
is an integral Openness to
part Life fosters
of parental conjugal love
love
Generosity in welcoming
Harmony and unity of parents & raising children fosters conjugal
contribute powerfully love. It is a sign
to a child’s self-worth of the totality of the self-giving &
and emotional stability. openness of the spouses
to each other.
 ”Parents will remind themselves
that it is certainly less serious to deny
their children certain material advantages than to
deprive them of the presence
of brothers and sisters who could help them grow
in humanity and to realize
the beauty of life at all its stages
and in all its reality.”

St. John Paul II

Generosity enriches and purifies parental love valuing

children for their own sake
and not only for the emotional satisfaction they give fosters
selflessness and spirit of sacrifice
in raising the children .

Generosity is good for the other children

character and human enrichment is enhanced
by the presence of another sibling who will accompany them
throughout their growing years.
Begetting & raising children: a
great good
Children are “the supreme gift” and “crowning glory”
of marriage and conjugal love
cf. CCC 1652

because the conception of a human being is a sacred event

where spouses cooperate with God’s creative power
in “transmitting the divine image from person to person”
John Paul II, FC 28

because every new birth adds one more to those called by God
to profit from Christ’s redemptive work and gain eternal life;

because bearing and raising children is an act of love of God

and of worship.
 Some guidelines
in family planning
decisions
◦ “In relation to physical, economic, psychological and social
conditions, responsible parenthood
is exercised by those who prudently
and generously decide to have more children…”
Paul VI, Enc. Humanae vitae, no. 10

◦ ”Sacred Scripture and the Church’s traditional practice see in

large families a sign
of God’s blessing and the parent’s generosity.”
CCC 2373

◦ Another way of exercising responsible parenthood is to decide,

“for serious reasons
and with due respect for the moral law,
to avoid for the time being,
or even for an indeterminate period, a new birth.”
Paul VI, Enc. Humanae vitae, no. 10
 The use
of periodic continence
Periodic continence
methods of birth regulation based on self-observation
and the use of infertile periods.

◦ In itself, the marital act is not falsified

the total reciprocal gift of self between husband
and wife is respected.

◦ “These methods respect the bodies of the spouses,

encourage tenderness between them
and favor the education of an authentic freedom.”
CCC 2370

◦ At the same time, recourse to such methods

must not be motivated by selfishness but be “in conformity
with the generosity appropriate to responsible parenthood”
CCC 2368

◦ God has many ways of blessing married couples:

some with many children; others with few, or none.
 Christian spouses must discover God’s plan for themselves and follow it
generously with his grace.
 TOPIC 23.6
THE TWO ESSENTIAL ENDS OF MARRIAGE

Reference: Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 1625-1642