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

A SACRAMENTAL THEOLOGY OF THE FAMILY...

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in marriage spouses cooperate to beget new life. So also in the Incarnation the human and divine natures cooperate to beget new life: “From his fullness we have all received;”13 "Shall I that give generation to others be barren saith the Lord thy God?”'14

On account of these likenesses, one can see more clearly how marriage is intended to signify the mystery of the Incarnation. Marriage as a sacrament has the purpose of revealing these truths about the Incarnation. This means that one of the ends or “final causes”33 34 35 36 of marriage is to signify clearly the truth about the Incarnation.

In the Scriptures and in the theological tradition of the Church, marriage was first of all seen as a sacrament of the union between Christ and the Church: “'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.,,3i But more profound theological reflection lead to the understanding of marriage also as a sign of the hypostatic union. Augustine says, for example: “The nuptial union is effected between the Word and human flesh, and the place where the union is consummated is the Virgin’s womb.”37 Gregory the Great also teaches: “God the Father made a marriage feast for God the Son when he joined him to human nature in the womb of the Virgin.”38 39 Indeed, the union of Christ and his Church itself finds its archetype and cause in the hypostatic union, which is why St. Paul alternately refers to the Church as both the bride and body of Christ. St. Thomas goes so far as to ground the inseparability of sacramental marriage upon the hypostatic union: “This inseparability of matrimony is principally caused inasmuch as it is a sacrament of the indissoluble conjunction of Christ and the Church, or of the Word and human nature in the Person of Christ.”3'' The reason he can make this claim is precisely because St. Thomas sees the signification of the Incarnation as one of the final causes for which marriage was instituted. St. Pope John Paul II teaches this as the doctrine of the Church when he states: “This revelation

33 Jn 1:16.

34 Isa 66:9.

35 A “final cause” is one of the four kinds of causes we find in ordinary experience. It is the reason for the sake of which something comes to be or exists. For example, the final cause of a knife is to cut and the final cause of a pen is to write.

36 Eph 5:31-32. In fact, the primary analogy for the Incarnation used by the Fathers was the union between soul and body.

37 Exposition of Psalm 44, n.3. See also Augustine’s Sermon on the Birth of John the Baptist: PL XXXVIII. 1319.

38 On the Gospels (Mt 22:1-13), n.3.

39 S. Thomae Aquinatis, Super Rom., c. 7, lect. 1. Also see Familiáris Consortio, 13: “By virtue of the sacramentality of their marriage, spouses are bound to one another in the most profoundly indissoluble manner.”