Folia Canonica 11. (2008)
STUDIES - George Gallardo-Dimitri Salachas: The "ritus sacer" of the Sacrament of Marriage in the Byzantine Churches
138 GEORGE D. GALLARO-DIMITRI SALACHAS spouses, attempts to shed clearer light on some major points of doctrine, emphasizing: “The covenant, or irrevocable personal consent, of marriage sets up an intimate sharing of married life and love as instituted by the Creator and regulated by God’s laws. Thus, the human action in which spouses give themselves to each other and accept each other results in an institution that is stable by divine ordinance and also in the eyes of society. This sacred bond, aimed at the good of the couple and their children and of society, does not depend on human decision [...]. Thus it is that a man and a woman, who ‘are no longer two but one flesh’ (Mt 19, 6) in their marital covenant, help and serve each other in their intimate union of persons and activities, and from day to day experience and increase their sense of oneness. Such intimacy, as a mutual giving of two persons as well as the good of their children, requires complete faithfulness between the partners, and call for their union being indissoluble.”16 As for the sacramentality of marriage, the same constitution Gaudium et spes highlights these major points: “Christ the Lord has richly blessed this varied love, which has sprung from the divine fountain oflove, to be a reflection of his union with the Church. As God once approached his people with a covenant of love and faithfulness, so now the saviour of women and men, and husband of the Church, comes to meet Christian couples through the sacrament of matrimony [...]. For this reason Christian partners are fortified and in a sense consecrated for the duties and dignity of their state by a special sacrament.”17 Taking their cue from this teaching, the two new codes have reformulated a more theologically rich and complete set of norms in this regard. Latin canon 1055: “§l.The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life and which is ordered by its nature to the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring, has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament between the baptized. § 2. For this reason, a valid matrimonial contract cannot exist between the baptized without it being by that fact a sacrament.”18 * And Eastern canon 776: “§l.By the marriage covenant, founded by the Creator and ordered by His laws, a man and a woman by irrevocable personal consent establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life; this covenant is by its very nature ordered to the good of the spouses and to the procreation and education of children. §2.By Christ’s institution, a valid marriage between baptized persons is by that very fact a sacrament in which the spouses are united by God after the pattern of Christ’s indefectible union with the Church, and are, as it were, consecrated and strengthened by sacramental grace.”1’ 16 Caudium et spes, 48. 17 Ibid. 18 See 1983 Code, c. 1055. 18 CCEO c. 776.
