Folia Canonica 8. (2005)
STUDIES - Grigorios D. Papathomas: An Open Ecclesial Communitarism: Dispar-Mixed Marriages and Adult Converions
DISPAR-MIXED MARRIAGES AND ADULT CONVERSIONS 153 the man and the woman - and both together - into a new reality, into a new and unique mode of existence, and brings about a new creation “of a single body”. The vital/mysteric aspect of this new creation does not limit itself to the ceremony itself, but should last and strengthen throughout the life of the concerned persons. That is how the early Christian Community experienced marriage and how the early theological voice of the Church, the apostle of Nations Paul, expressed it when he called it “a Great Mystery” (Eph. 5:3 2) in itself [monogamous, heterosexual, conjugal and communional aspect], but in the perception of the world by the Church, he strongly expressed the liturgical wish of accomplishing this mystery “in Christ and in the Church” (Eph. 5:32). This is because, for the Church, Christian marriage is the image of the love relationship between Christ and all His Body (totus Christus), His Chuch “across the Cosmos” (Canon 57/Carthage-56/Quinisext), but also with the whole world - called to become Church. This marriage finds its sublime meaning through its participation in this relationship. In this sense, marriage essentially consists of an ecclesial reality [sacramental/mysteric, ontological, soteriological and eschatological aspect]. Thus, according to Church Theology, marriage is the event that brings about the “union of a man and a woman” (Roman Jurist Modestinus) in His image and His likeness (cf. Gen. 1:26-27; 5:1), since it has to do first with the Mystery of the Creation of the world, regardless of whether the man and woman in question ac- knowledge/know or accept that this union be made “in Christ and in the Church”, in imitation of the mystery of the Salvation of the world, as a continuation of the first mystery of Creation. And this must be accepted, if Church Theology wants to be consistent with the creative Word of God... Today, pastors and theologians of the Church should consider this problem if they want to construct a coherent theology of the world. For when the Church addresses itself to the world and to society, it does not address itself to a foreign and separate body. There is no ontological dualism between the Church and the world, between the sacred and the profane. No fonn of life and culture escapes the universality of the Incarnation. “For God so loved the world” (John 3:16) in its state of sin. The victory of Christ, which had led to the descent into hell, reveals a cosmic dimension which abolishes all borders. According to the ktisiology of the Fathers, the universe advances towards its end through the total perspective of Creation, total since directed towards the Incarnation. Christ assumes and achieves, completing what had stopped since the fall, and expresses salvational Love without omitting anything from His plan for mankind. If that is the case, we could divide marriage into four types, recognised as such by the Church, regardless of whether all these types of marriage are celebrated inside or outside the Church. These types, in chronological order of appearance, are:
