Why does the Catholic Church teach that marriage is indissoluble when there are so many divorces today? To answer this question, we must first look at exactly what the Church teaches. This is summarized in paragraph 1061 of the Catechism of the Catholic which states: “The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament.” This has been carried over into Canon Law. Canon Law states: “The essential properties of marriage are unity and indissolubility, which in Christian marriage obtain a special firmness by reason of the sacrament.” (Code of Canon Law 1056) It is a relationship in which the two people involved, by mutual consent; give themselves freely and totally to the relationship in an “irrevocable covenant”. (Code of Canon Law 1057 §2)
There are a number of key words here. The first is “partnership of the whole of life;” the second is “covenant;” third key phrase is “raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament; and the covenant must be between a “man and a woman.”
The first one we will examine is the phrase “partnership for the whole of life” because it is the most obvious in its meaning and therefore easiest to understand. What is a partnership? Merriam-Webster’s on-line dictionary has this definition: a relationship resembling a legal partnership and usually involving close cooperation between parties having specified and joint rights and responsibilities. What are these rights and responsibilities? While there are many the definition from the catechism sums it up in the words “ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of children.” So, we are left with the whole of life which means well, “until death do us part” to put it in the most common phrase we hear today.
Rather than a business partnership in which there is a contract the Church says marriage is a covenant partnership. What is a covenant? It is a solemn agreement between human beings or between God and a human being involving mutual commitments or guarantees (CCC Glossary). This covenant is formed when the bride and groom participate in a “human act by which the partners mutually give themselves to each other”: “I take you to be my wife “- “I take you to be my husband.” This consent that binds the spouses to each other finds its fulfillment in the two “becoming one flesh.”(CCC 1627) This covenant, this sacrament, this marriage covenant involves such an intimate binding of two beings that this is image that God Himself favored, through the Scriptures, as the one which most imitates or emulates the sign of His covenant with His people. Unlike a contract, a covenant is not rendered invalid or broken when one party to the covenant does not keep their commitments.
If this marriage is a sacramental sign of God’s love for His people, as it is testified to in both the Old and New Testaments, the act itself must accurately reflect that love. It must be faithful, monogamous, indissoluble, and fruitful. This is the foundation of all traditional Christian sexual morality. This is the image presented to us by God when he created them male and female (Genesis). This is what Christ taught as recorded in the Gospels in Matthew 19: 1-9 and Mark 10:1-5 where Jesus himself declared marriage as indissoluble.
When Jesus finished these words, * he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan. Great crowds followed him, and he cured them there. Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him, saying, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?” * He said in reply, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ 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 flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore,
what God has joined together; no human being must separate.”
One contention in the secular world is the words “between a man and a woman.” The Church does not recognize in this anything but a biological male and a biological female. Part of the reason is in spite of how the person may “identify” themselves or surgically and chemically modify their body, in essence, the way they were “knit together” in their mother’s womb does not change. Only the union between a man and a woman can produce offspring as God intended.
In his book Your Life is Worth Living, Bishop Fulton J Sheen (p250-253) wrote the following:
Marriage between a man and a woman is meant to be enduring by the nature of love. There are only tow words in the vocabulary of love: you and always. You because is love is unique; always because love is enduring.
There is an order and a supernatural order. We live in the order of the human and the divine. In addition to the physical life there is supernatural life which is grace………Our Blessed Lord makes marriage a sacrament. To those who are united in His Church, He gives grace, strength and power to live out their mutual existence.
I can attest to the truth of what Bishop Sheen writes. My Wife and I have been married almost 48 years. Our marriage has endured thanks to God’s grace and a recognition that we entered into a covenant. Marriage requires a willingness to make a 100% commitment on the part of both spouses. It is not always wine, roses, and wonderful music. It is not always the love scenes from Hallmark movies. Sometimes it is gritty hard work where you wake up in the morning and make a conscious decision that I am going to love that other person today because of all that has gone before and all that I hope will come. Real love is expressed when in the hardest of times, you say maybe to yourself, I value this union more than I value winning the argument or I do not care how rough the road may get, I will walk it with the person, I will remain faithful to the covenant.
Let me close with more from Bishop Sheen: In embracing one another, we give testimony of that by which we are embraced, namely by the love of God.
Happy Valentine’s Day
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