CHRIST IN THE HOME
http://www.ewtn.com/library/FAMILY/CHRISTH1.TXT
BY RAOUL PLUS, S.J.
a Translation from the French
FREDERICK PUSTET CO., INC. Publishers NEW YORK AND
CINCINNATI
Nihil Obstat:
JOHN M. A. FEARNS, S.T.D., Censor Librorum
Imprimatur:
+FRANCIS CARDINAL SPELLMAN,
Archbishop of New York
New York, June 19, 1951
MARRIAGE
CHRIST AND MARRIAGE
OUR LORD did not come to destroy but to fulfill the law. Marriage was
to remain exactly what it was in the Natural Law: the exchange of two
wills for the purpose of procreation. Our Savior who knew very well
the difficulties of the marital state made a sacrament of this mutual
exchange of wills, a rite that imparts grace. Each of the two in
becoming united to the other will enrich that other one with an
increase of sanctifying grace. Both should be in the state of grace
before the marriage takes place since it is a sacrament of the
living, which means that its purpose is to intensify the divine life
already existing in the soul. By their gift of themselves to each
other they also obtain for each other a gift of new growth in the divine.
Because marriage is fundamentally a contract--a double yes giving to
each of the two complete right to the other--it has this special
feature that there is no other minister than the two concerned.
Sometimes people say, "That's Father So and So; he married us." The
expression is incorrect. It is not the priest who marries the bride
and groom; they marry themselves. They themselves are the ministers
of the sacrament which they receive at the same time. The priest is
there only in the capacity of a witness representing the Church; as
the witness required for the validity of the marriage; but a witness only.
What eminent dignity therefore has the sacrament of Matrimony! What
eminent dignity have the bride and groom! They are for each other
transmitters of the divine.
The bonds which they contract bear upon two points: the oneness of
the couple, the indissolubility of their bonds. Our Lord, who made of
marriage a grace-giving rite, also stressed the double obligation of
unity and indissolubility.
Oneness: They form a single unit. They shall be two in one flesh,
says Genesis. But due to human grossness, forms of polygamy were
introduced. Our Savior forbade them, and the Church has always taken
care to require the observance of the law. Love itself demands it.
Marriage is such an intimate reality. To live it with several
individuals at the same time is condemned by natural feeling itself.
Divine law merely reaffirms this basic requirement. Furthermore,
family stability as well as the happiness of the children militate
equally in favor of oneness.
Indissolubility: Marriage creates a oneness forever; a oneness that
can be dissolved only by the death of either partner. The encyclical
of Pius XI, "Casti-Connubii" reminds the world of this:
"For each individual marriage, inasmuch as it is a conjugal union of
a particular man and woman, arises only from the free consent of each
of the spouses; and this free act of the will, by which each party
hands over and accepts those rights proper to the state of marriage
is so necessary to constitute true marriage that it cannot be
supplied by any human power.
"This freedom, however, regards only the point whether the
contracting parties really wish to enter upon matrimony or to marry
this particular person; but the nature of matrimony is entirely
independent of the free will of man, so that if one has once
contracted matrimony he is thereby subject to its Divinely made laws
and its essential properties."
MARRIAGE AND BAPTISM
CHRIST came to restore to us the divine life lost by original sin. He
instituted baptism as the practical means of entering upon the
supernatural. The baptized person is not only a soul and a body, but
a soul in which God lives.
According to one of the Fathers of the Church baptism is a marriage
between God and the soul; he goes so far as to call the soul Spirita
Sancta the feminine form for the Holy Spirit (Spiritus Sanctus).
Without this marriage of God and the soul, the individual can have no
spiritual fecundity. It is impossible: The most noble human act
performed by one in mortal sin has no value at all for heaven.
What then is the marriage of two beings of flesh and bone?
It is the image on an earthly plane of a union which is more
beautiful although invisible--the union of God and the soul.
Baptism, marriage--two sacraments of union--and the second will
always be but a symbol of the first. Union of God with the soul,
union of husband and wife. Two sacraments of union; two sacraments of
fecundity. Without God, the soul can do nothing fruitful for heaven;
without each other, husband and wife cannot beget children. And just
as Saint Paul could call all sin adultery since it is deliberate
divorce from God, so every break in the marriage bond is blameworthy
and true adultery.
Both baptism and marriage then are sacraments of inviolable union. A
rupture of the union whether a divorce from God or a divorce from
one's partner in marriage can in either case be called adultery.
What better guarantee have the wedded couple of their reciprocal
fidelity than their common life in the state of grace! Each of the
two refusing to be divorced from God is thus more sure of the other.
United as they are by the same promise, by conjugal embraces, they
are likewise united with each other by the same Holy Spirit who forms
the Bond between them. Any husband or wife who denies this is already
committing an offence against the integrity of the gift of self. Each
of the two must live the truth of Tertullian's definition of a soul
in grace. "What is a Christian?" he asked. "A Christian is a soul in
a body and God in that soul." To give to one's partner in marriage
only the first two elements and refuse the third is not to give all,
not to give the best. Truly it is a plunder, a plunder which injures
husband and wife. Is it possible not to realize this? It remains
profoundly true just the same: Indeed, it is a double betrayal. For
who can say that one who has been coward enough to betray God will
not be just as likely to betray the partner of his life?
So true is this, that only fidelity to God can give completeness to marriage.
RESPECT IN LOVE
COMPLETE fidelity in marriage is essential. It is however only a
minimum. To treat each other as living tabernacles of God-- that is
what marriage between two baptized persons demands.
Know you that the sacrament of Christian initiation transforms a
person into a living temple of the Most High?
You know.
Well then, behind this more or less attractive human silhouette which
is the person of the marriage partner, body and soul, there is God
dwelling within and living His Divine life in the depths of the soul.
Consequently when poor health or advancing age cause husband or wife
to grow less attractive exteriorly, that is not a reason for love to wane.
How many know that when husband and wife in the state of grace
embrace each other by conjugal privilege, they clasp the Holy
Trinity, who unites them even more closely than their human embrace?
Far from coming between them, what supernatural intimacy and what
magnificent dignity does it give to their union! How it elevates, and
idealizes what in itself is good though still carnal and therefore
capable of easily becoming earthy and, for some, difficult to
consider as something noble.
It is rare to find Christians who truly have faith at least faith in
the fundamental mystery of the life of the baptized. Father Charles
de Foucauld wrote to his married sister who was the mother of a family:
"God is in us, in the depths of our soul . . . always, always, always
there, listening to us and asking us to chat a bit with Him. And that
is, as much as my weakness will permit, my very life, my darling.
Try, that more and more it may become yours; that will not isolate
you, nor draw you away from your other occupations. It only requires
a minute; then, instead of being alone, there will be two of you to
fulfill your tasks. From time to time lower your eyes toward your
heart, recollect yourself for a mere quarter of a minute and say:
"You are there, my God. I love You." It will take you no more time
than that and all that you do will be much better done having such a
help. And what help it is! Little by little, you will acquire the
habit and you will finally be always aware of this sweet companion
within yourself, this God of our hearts... Let us pray for each other
that we may both keep this dear Guest of our souls loving company."
If husband and wife were equally convinced of the living splendor
their souls actually present, how the marital act, so holy to begin
with, would become for them an act of divine faith, an act penetrated
by the highest supernatural spirit.
I want to meditate often on my baptism, and the mystery of the divine
life in me. I want to become accustomed to treat myself as a living
tabernacle of my Lord, to regard the companion of my life as the
thrice holy shrine of the Divinity, for I know this to be a reality.
The just live by faith. I want to live by faith.
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Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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on your Mobile <*}}}><
<*}}}>< <http://www.halfthekingdom.org/wordpress/>Half the Kingdom!
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Kingdom! By the by <*}}}><
Lord, may everything we do begin with Your inspiration and continue
with Your help,
so that all our prayers and works may begin in You and by You be happily ended.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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