Folia Canonica 11. (2008)
STUDIES - George Gallardo-Dimitri Salachas: The "ritus sacer" of the Sacrament of Marriage in the Byzantine Churches
140 GEORGE D. GALLARO-DIMITRI SALACHAS “Marriage is a sacred rite. The spouses promise reciprocal fidelity before the Church; the grace of God is bestowed through the blessing of the minister of the Church. It sanctifies their union and confers the dignity of representing the spiritual union of Christ and the Church.”21 22 * * From the Eastern standpoint, emphasis is placed on the sacred rite of the sacrament celebrated by the priest and presupposing consent (understood as a free, personal act of the will), with which two Christians—a man and a woman—establish the matrimonial covenant. In the East, the minister of the sacrament of matrimony is the priest;25 in the West, it is the spouses who, by virtue of their Baptism, are the ministers, the priest fulfilling nothing more than the role of a qualified witness. In the Eastern Churches, then, the priest’s blessing is the central, fundamental act in forming the matrimonial bond; the part played by the priest is actually sacramental. When he bestows God’s blessing on the couple, the priest is not performing a simple ritual gesture, but by invoking the Holy Spirit, he is truly the minister of the mystery of God realized in matrimony. That being the case, one can easily understand why neither the deacon nor much less a Christian lay-person can take the place of the priest in liturgical-sacramental celebrations, as is possible, under specific conditions, in the current law of the Latin Church. This is why, in Eastern theology, “by the term sacrament of matrimony is understood that sacred function in which, by means of the blessing of the celebrant of the Lord, divine grace is transmitted to married persons; grace which sanctifies their matrimonial bond and elevates it to the image of Christ’s spiritual union with the Church, thus aiding them in the attainment of all the blessed ends of matrimony.”26 Y et, it should be noted that the ancient Christian East was not completely lacking the concept of a hierarchy of ends within matrimony. Saint John Chrysostom, commenting on the First Letter to the Corinthians affirms that, “Matrimony, without any doubt, was instituted for procreation, but as well to quench the burning passion of nature,”27 i.e., as a remedy for concupiscence. As for contemporary Orthodox theologians, the ‘triptych’ of matrimonial ends (procreation, remedy for concupiscence, and mutual help between the spouses) 21 Evdokimov, 119; see also P. Chamberas, This is a Great Mystery: Christian Marriage in the Orthodox Church, Brookline (Ma) 2003. 25 G. Nedungatt, Minister of the Sacrament of Marriage in the East and the West, in Periodica 90 (2001) 305—388; G. Kadzioch, II ministro del sacramento del matrimonio nella tradizione e ne! diritto latino e orientale, Roma 1997, 89-95; P. Viscuso, The Formation of Marriage in Late Byzantium, in St Vladimir's Theological Quarterly 35 (1991) 309-325; F. van de Paverd, Forme celebrative de! matrimonio nelle chiese orientali, in Aa.Vv., La celebrazione del matrimonio cristiano, Bologna 1977, 11—116. 26 G. Zervos, La licenza vescovile di matrimonio, in Nicolaus 1 (1974) 136; sec also II matrimonio, H.-D. Dopmann, II Cristo d’Oriente, Genova 1994, 232-236; N. Matsoukas, Teológia dogmaticae simbolica ortodossa, Roma 1996, 277-278. 27 PG 48; 547.
