In my last post I discussed the reasons for the Church's stance against divorce and remarriage, particularly from a biblical perspective as to how Jesus and St. Paul were against such an idea themselves. However, I only briefly touched upon an even stronger reason against divorce and remarriage, which is the strength of Matrimony as a Sacrament instituted by Christ himself and how it connects to God's eternal plan for each and every one of us since the beginning of time and space.
In particular I stated: 'All of this points back to the original intent of the indissoluble unity. This is not done to be cruel, or to make it hard for those who have had difficult relationships with their spouses. It is meant to be a calling to the original intent of Matrimony, going back all the way to the beginning when God bound the first people into the first marriage as husband and wife in eternal Love-filled sacrifice and servitude to each other (Genesis 2); it is meant to be a symbol of Christ's union with his Church (Ephesians 5: 21-30), for He is the head and the Church is the body (1 Colossians 1: 18), one flesh (1 Corinthians 12: 12-26). It is hard to imagine that Marriage can be a proper symbol of such things when it is acceptable for the ties of marriage to be split. Can a head be removed from its body and still live? Can Jesus truly be separated from His Church?'
There is so much beauty and richness in these truths that I feel compelled to expound on it even more. In particular, it is in my being drawn closer each and every day to marriage with my fiancé Maria that I continue to see the depth of the Sacrament of Matrimony in its holiness and sacredness. Maria and marriage with her embodies for me everything that the Sacrament is all about: love as complete and indissoluble self sacrifice for the other, unity to the point of being one flesh, and a symbol of God's original and intended plan for all of humanity and their salvation.
What sticks out to me most of all is the everlasting presence of Marriage in theology, both in its past, its present, and its future. Its visibility throughout all of Christian thought, especially as represented in Scripture, points to Marriage's true intention in our faith as it was always meant to be.
As it Was
As stated in the previous post Jesus refers back to 'the beginning' when talking to the Pharisees about divorce and marriage: "Because of the hardness of your hearts [Moses] wrote you this commandment [to write a bill of divorce and dismiss the wife]. But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife], and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together no human being must separate" (Mark 10: 5-9).
This phrase that is stated in numerous Gospels, 'from the beginning', obviously points to Genesis 2, when Eve was created from the side of Adam and is referred by Adam to be 'bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh' (Genesis 2: 23); Scripture then states that this is the reason why a man 'leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two become one flesh' (Genesis 2: 24). It is a very interesting phrase in part because it hearkens back to the first marriage in existence. But even more importantly, it reflects upon the original intent and nature of marriage in the first place. It is no accident that Jesus quotes Genesis 2: 24 in particular; it is the very foundation of his argument against the concept of divorce that the Pharisees were accustomed to. Man and wife become one flesh upon marriage, and one flesh, one body, cannot divide itself.
As God is the one that formed the flesh unity between Adam and Eve, so He forms each and every unity between man and wife into one flesh. The language used in Genesis 2 cannot be more intimate than that; and the very intimacy of the language itself also points to the very nature of marriage as well: two people cannot be closer to each other than by being united in one flesh with each other.
Jesus' reflection of 'the beginning' points not just to what God originally wanted for us and marriage but to our very nature and the very nature of marriage itself. If God has an original intent for something then it does not simply mean that it is something that God would have liked to have happened with that thing, it means that that thing is designed by God for a specific purpose, it is in their nature to be that way. Thus, that thing should exist in accordance with that nature; to act contrary to it would be detrimental to itself.
For example, God designed the human body to require oxygen in order to continue to live. If we were to stop breathing oxygen and start breathing purely nitrogen for instance than we would die; it is in our very nature as human beings to breathe oxygen and to act contrary to that nature would kill us.
So it is with all things made by God, whether physical or spiritual. The very nature of Marriage is one of the most intimate of unions and was designed by God to persist that way. That is Jesus' point in continuously referring back to 'the beginning' when Adam and Eve were of one flesh.
As It Is
It is a fair question to ask, after recognizing the above, why God originally intended Marriage to be a unifying intimate union between a man and a woman. Ultimately, as with all of God's plans, we cannot fathom entirely why He does anything. That being said, we are made in His image and as a result we are capable of grasping truths about God and His plans to a certain degree, especially from sources such as Sacred Scripture. And we can see from Sacred Scripture that at least part of the original intention of Marriage is geared towards a fulfillment of Jesus' mission in being united to the Church.
We can see this most clearly in Ephesians 5. Here is the passage in its entirety:
"Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of his wife just as Christ is the head of the church, he himself the savior of his body. As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. So [also] husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. 'For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' 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."
There is not enough space to unpack here the depth of meaning that this passage contains, so I will simply mention a few things that are important to mention.
First, it is important to note that St. Paul does the same thing Jesus does in referencing back to the beginning of marriage in Genesis 2: 24. This just further establishes the fact that marriage in its very nature is unifying and intimate.
Second, St. Paul uses this along with a bit of logic to establish another point, which is what the very nature of the man and the woman, when married to one another, is. He assumes from Genesis 2: 24 that husbands and wives are of one flesh and argues that as a result of this the husband and wife should take care of the other; after all, who does not want to take care of their own body? Who hates their own body?
St. Paul clearly takes the words of Genesis 2: 24 to heart, otherwise his argument would be nonsensical. With husband and wife being of one flesh the husband must take care of his body and the wife must take care of her head, just as any other body naturally does of its own accord.
Third and most importantly, St. Paul not only shows a connection between husband and wife with Christ and the church, he reveals that Christ loving and sacrificing for the church is the fulfillment of Genesis 2: 24 and, thus, the very fulfillment of all marriages.
Indeed, the husband is clearly connected to being the head as Christ is the head of the church, and the wife is clearly connected to being the body as the church is the heavenly body of Christ. But if you also notice, immediately after he quotes Genesis 2: 24 St. Paul states that he speaks 'in reference to Christ and the church.' This is an admission that Paul feels that Christ is a fulfillment of Genesis 2: 24, for he is the Messiah and did exactly what He came to do: to unite himself entirely to his church by sacrificing himself for it.
St. Paul also referring to Christ as the head and the Church as the body serves to further illustrate the notion that Christ has become one body with his church and thus is in a sense married to her. I say 'in a sense' because it is marriage here that is clearly a symbol of the union Christ and the church have, not the other way around.
This is further corroborated in 1 Corinthians 12: 12, where St. Paul says, "As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ." He then goes on a lengthy diatribe describing how a body's parts cannot ever act against one another because they by their very nature act in accord with one another, for no part is the body itself but only together can they be the body. He establishes his point by recognizing that it is the same with the body of Christ.
So if the body of Christ, of which Christ is the head, cannot act contrary to itself and a man and a woman in marriage represents the body of Christ, then it must be the case that man and woman in marriage cannot act contrary to one another; they cannot separate from one another and are called to act as one because they are one. This is the point I touched upon before in my other post about divorce: with marriage of husband and wife being representative of Christ and his Church and with Christ and his Church being of one body and mind, it shows that Christ cannot and will not be separated from his church and, as such, husband and wife cannot be truly separated from each other.
Thus, to go back, If Jesus' being unified to his church is the ultimate fulfillment of Genesis 2: 24 and Genesis 2: 24 has historically and traditionally been connected to the very nature of marriage between man and woman, then logically the marriage between husband and wife is reflective of the very real, unifying, and unceasing love that Christ has for the church and the church has for Christ.
As It Will Be
As stated earlier, the above is certainly part of the original intention of marriage. There is another part, however, of that original intention that is not often discussed, and that is the connection between marriage on earth and the final Marriage that all of the faithful will participate in at the end of days.
If we go to Revelation 19, we will see that this particular section of the book focuses on celebration and joy. All of the battles and bloodshed mentioned earlier in Revelations has already come to pass at this point, and now we see the fruit of it all, for we read, "Alleluia! The Lord has established his reign, [our] God, the almighty. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready" (v. 7,emphasis mine). A little later on the angel says to John, "Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb" (v. 9, emphasis mine). After that John says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (21: 1-2, emphasis mine). And then, shortly after, "One of the seven angels who held the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came and said to me, 'Com here. I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb'" (v. 9, emphasis mine).
Why do we have all of these references to marriage mentioned during a time that is supposed to be describing the glorious reign of Christ at the end of days? Didn't Jesus say in Matthew 22: 30, Mark 12: 25, and Luke 20: 35 that when we die and go to heaven we will not be 'married nor given in marriage'?
What Jesus was referring to in those passages was earthly marriage between a man and a woman; such a marriage with sexual acts will not exist nor need to exist in eternal life.
What Revelations seems to imply, however, is that earthly marriage is meant to represent this 'marriage feast' mentioned in chapter 19, between the Lamb and his 'bride'; if it did not imply this then it would not use terms like 'wedding', 'bride', and 'husband' to describe what will be occurring.
As we have already established above, the bride of Christ is the Church, for it is the Church that Christ sacrificed himself for and who Christ is the head of and one body with. So when Revelations mentions the 'bride' and the 'wife of the Lamb' ('Lamb' being a symbol of Christ) it is most certainly referring to the Church. However, these passages are focused on a different period of time, namely, the end of days when all are resurrected, Satan and those who follow him are cast aside, and those who have followed and do follow Christ enter into in a 'new heaven and a new earth'.
Thus, this language of being part of the 'wedding feast' refers to an event in the future in which sin and depravity are vanquished and Christ's body is made new, with 'radiance like that of a precious stone' (21: 11).
This shows us that husband and wife, as one unified body, are a symbol of the marriage feast that will take place at the end of time, the final completion of the Divine Plan for all of humanity. Jesus the Lamb is the head and his body, the Church, are united but also completely cleansed, for the Lamb makes 'all things new' (21: 5). This making of all things new in our resurrected bodies, in eternal bliss and holiness, united to God, is the absolute fulfillment of Christ's sacrifice for his people, for his very body. As such, it is intimately united to those called to married life.
This is why marriage is one of the most glorious callings that we can receive from God. We, as Christians, are first and foremost called to live a holy and saintly life in praise and glory to God our Father, our Lord Jesus Christ and the most Holy Spirit. Matrimony, as with all vocations, is given to us by God entirely to give us the grace to fulfill that first and primary of vocations. What makes Matrimony stand out, though, is its existence throughout all of human history and its being implemented by God from the very origin of Man as the path towards a union with God himself.
This is what makes me excited for Marriage. Maria and I work together in love and charity to bring each other closer to God and His will for us. We both truly believe that God brought us together in order to bring each of us closer to Him.
For this is what makes Matrimony truly special: it symbolizes and points to something that is infinitely more amazing. Marriage cannot be an end in itself because it is not designed to be; it is designed to represent Christ's love for us and the love that we should have for Him. That is what marriage always was, is, and will be.
No comments:
Post a Comment