Folia Theologica et Canonica 4. 26/18 (2015)

SACRA THEOLOGIA - Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem., A sacramental theology of the family: the unity and harmony of the sacramental order

FOLIA THEOLOGICA ET CANONICA (2015) 115-134

Sebastian Walshe, O.Praem.

A SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGY OF THE FAMILY:

THE UNITY AND HARMONY OF THE SACRAMENTAL ORDER

Introduction; I. The Importance of Signs; II. The Trinitarian Communion; III. The Trinitarian Communion Made Human through the Incarnation; IV. Christ the Bridegroom and the Church His Bride; Conclusion

Introduction

The past decades have witnessed rapid and radical changes in cultural understandings and attitudes toward the family. What used to be taken for granted, namely that the family consists of a married man and woman together with their children, and that the family is natural and prior to civil society, has been widely denied and systematically challenged at the cultural and political levels. Catholics find themselves in a quandary about how to respond to and think about these changes. There seems to be little connection between the principal dogmas of the Faith (such as the Trinity and the Incarnation) and the shift in attitudes towards the family. Moreover, many Catholics do not see any essential connection between the natural family and the sacramental order. Much of the defense of the traditional understanding of the family has relied upon natural law arguments taken not from divine revelation, but from Philosophy. This often leaves the faithful Catholic with the sense that what has been revealed by God is unrelated to these traditional understandings of the family. And so many Catholics see no reason why someone cannot embrace these changes in the understanding of the family while at the same time remain a faithful Catholic. This article aims to manifest 1) the fundamental connection between the traditional understanding of the family and the principal dogmas of the Catholic Faith revealed by Christ; and 2) the unity and harmony of the sacramental order.

There are three chief goods of marriage: fidelity, children, and the sacramen- tum.' Among the goods of marriage, the principal is the sacramentum;1 2 that is,

1 S. Thomae Aquinatis, Summa Theologica, Supp., q. 49 art. 2. Cf., CCC n.1660.

2 S. Thomae Aquinatis. In IVSent., d. 31 q. 1, art. 3: “The sacrament holds first place among the three goods of marriage.”