Wedding or Matrimony (II)

Theognoto

We deepen, now, the proposed theme. For a Catholic Christian couple a man's union with a woman is already going besides the merely material. In fact, in the divine plan of the Creation, the human beings are lifted to a condition that surpasses the biological character of our animal configuration.

When creating the human being, God made him man and woman. And, in the destination that He foresaw, He considered that "was not good that Adam stayed alone". Wanting to give him company - it is read in the poetic report of the Genesis - God saw that only the woman was suitable him in dignity. Flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones. To the alive men's mother it would be destined a mission ratified "ab initio" in the expression: "grow and multiply".

It was, so, instituted the primeval Sacrament (proto sacrament); whose larger significance Christ would came to exalt in the plenty known legal controversies with the masters of Israel. And sacrament, yes, for being sensitive and effective sign of the Grace (as teaches the Mother Church). Tangible for the senses (when of the union of the hands and the exchange of the symbolic rings), and effective for the presence of the Lord among those that surrender, voluntarily, for the donation of live and love.

As teaches the Theologian (Saint Thomas of Aquinas) the mater of this sacrament consists of the union - mutually spoilt - of the engaged couple and the form of this same sacrament is characterized in the "yes" of them. The priest, presiding the ceremony and the presence of the Christian assembly, they only affirm the "placet" of the Church.

Now, this union that Jesus wants indissoluble - when He affirms that, starting from then, man and woman will be only "one flesh" - it doesn't only extend to the reproductive sexual character, but it immerses in the plan of the Grace. In fact, not only for DNA common to the descendants, but above all for the indissolubility of the matrimonial link, the spouses should live an "unity" of social and religious behavior. The word "conjuges" (partners) itself, in its etymological Latin root. express the reality of mutual dependence. Because that this "yoke" (as that arresting two oxen in a same plow), it translates the need of an integrated action of the participants in the same love act.

This real union of a couple is completed in their children that are called now to integrate the only body of the family. And they stay like this until each one, assuming the own vocation, choose the destiny that assists their desires. It is this integration the touchstone that will serve as base for a well organized society having in the family its fundamental cell.

We see, of this way, that the concept purely human and social of "casamento" (marriage) is incomplete when defining the compound context of a divine-human relationship among husbands. The mere social contract, fallible and limited, it should give place to a stable union, loaded of transcendent values. Indeed the sacramental character of the "Matrimony" it gives to the husbands rights and responsibilities above what is demanded by the men's law.

The Teaching of the Church affirms us that the purpose of the "Matrimony" can be summarized in two complementary aspects: a) to procreate children not only for the human society but, with priority, for the Church (vassals of Eternal Kingdom); b) to allow the welfare of the matrimonial relationship guaranteeing the couple's psychosomatic satisfaction aiming at to lead the husbands to the sanctity. For such goal, the sexual incentive inserted in this context will be the foundation of a pure love "Eros" exalted in the "Charitas Dei".

(To be continued in the module III)