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

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SEBASTIAN WALSHE, O.PRAEM.

and the loving attention of the community, the grace to be fully reunited to Christ.'"'

Another consequence of the sacramental meaning of marriage is that the spouses are called to communion, that is, to the sharing of one life. For as Christ communicates his own life (i.e., sanctifying grace, which especially comes through the Eucharist) to the Church, so also a husband and wife ought to share in one life. This union of lives obviously requires openness between spouses. Jesus called his disciples “friends” because he had revealed to them everything he had heard from his Father.64 65 Spouses too should have no secrets from one another, but should communicate and share openly all that is of importance to one another. Sharing a life also requires the sacrifices involved in spending time together. For example, the husband should not spend unnecessary time at work or with friends away from his family. It is interesting to note that it was precisely when Adam was away from his wife Eve that the serpent found an opportunity to tempt her. Had they been together, perhaps they might have been able to resist his temptations.

So powerful is the sacramental meaning of communion in marriage that St. Paul appeals to this aspect of marriage as an argument against fornication:

“Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take Christ’s members and make them the members of a prostitute? Of course not! Or do you not know that anyone who joins himself to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For ‘the two,’ it says, ‘will become one flesh.' But whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Avoid immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the immoral person sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?”66

St. Paul asserts that in the union of Christ and his Church, “whoever is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.” This means that they share the same life principle, and hence the same life. And from this he argues that fornication brings Christ into union with a prostitute through the body of the believer. True, fornication is wrong because it is an unreasonable use of the reproductive power since children are meant to be raised by parents in a stable union. Such

64 “[The divorced and remarried] should be encouraged to listen to the word of God, to attend the Sacrifice of the Mass, to persevere in prayer, to contribute to works of charity and to community efforts in favor of justice, to bring up their children in the Christian faith, to cultivate the spirit and practice of penance and thus implore, day by day, God’s grace. Let the Church pray for them, encourage them and show herself a merciful mother, and thus sustain them in faith and hope.” Familiáris Consortia, 84.

65 Cf. Jn 15:15.

66 1 Cor 6:16-19.