Article — Merkelbach, Summa Theologiae Moralis
Article I: On the Institution of the Sacrament
S. Th., Suppl. q. 42; III, q. 65, a. 1; C. Gent. IV, 78.
779. State of the question. - Besides the Gnostics and Manichaeans, who condemned nuptials as evil (n. 762-763) and thus indirectly denied their sacramental character, the Protestants directly denied this, although on the other hand they said that nuptials are good and often extolled them.
Peter de Bruis, Arnold of Brescia, and in general the Waldenses and Albigenses held the same as the Manichaeans. Luther said that matrimony is a worldly thing and denied that it is a sacrament, since it lacks a divine promise. Calvin says that the character of a sacrament belongs to nuptials no more than to agriculture or to the shoemaker's art, and that they were not held as a sacrament before the times of Gregory I. More recent Protestants, although they hold matrimony as a religious institution, nevertheless deny that it is a sacrament, except for the Ritualists, who place it among the lesser sacraments. And many Modernists hold, prop. 51: "Matrimony could not become a sacrament of the New Law except later in the Church; since, in order that matrimony be held as a sacrament, it was necessary that there precede a full theological explanation of the doctrine of grace and of the sacraments."
On the contrary, the doctrine of the Church is that matrimony, from the beginning, indeed foretold the future union of Christ with the Church, but in the New Law is the sign of this union now existing, and a properly so-called sacrament significative and productive of grace derived from Christ.
That this doctrine may be well understood, it must be noted:
a) There is a twofold union of Christ with human nature: one physical, the other spiritual. By force of the former the assumed humanity is drawn to the very personal being of the Word; by force of the latter charity and grace descends from Christ the head into the body of the Church: thus the second union integrates and completes the first.
b) Further, the conjugal union of man and woman has a proportional likeness with the union of the Word to humanity, and indeed in two ways:
- By reason of the end and of the operation toward the end. For the principal end of matrimony is man to be procreated and educated for the worship of God; but the end of the union of the Word with flesh and of Christ with the Church is likewise man to be repaired by grace for the worship of God. Then, in the operation for obtaining the end of matrimony, the undivided work of man and woman is required; likewise, for obtaining the end of the incarnation there was required the theandric operation of one person in whom there was a twofold nature, divine and human; and after redemption was consummated, the undivided influence of Christ and of the Church is required for the spiritual life of the faithful.
- By reason of the relations between the things conjoined, namely, between Christ and the Church, man and woman.
In the conjugal union there is had a fellowship of life and a communication of rights, yet in such a way that the man is the head of the woman, and retains the right of ruling, and as it were assumes the wife to himself, not conversely. So proportionally for the Church with respect to Christ, and for the assumed humanity with respect to the assuming divinity.
If these things are considered, matrimony already from its nature had a certain singular suitability, that it should be assumed as a sign and symbol of the conjunction of the Word with flesh and of Christ with the Church. But, as Scripture testifies, in fact it was assumed to signify this (Eph. V, 32). In the old law, indeed, it could be nothing except a shadowy type and a merely prognostic sign of the future incarnation; wherefore it was not a sacrament collative of grace. But in the New Testament the matrimonial union is a sacred sign expressing the likeness of the union now existing between Christ and the Church; indeed it is ordered to an end of the same order as the end of the incarnation, namely, to offspring to be formed, and not in any manner whatever, but according to the law of grace, for the propagation and perennial conservation of the Church. Wherefore in the law of Christ marriage, as to its substance, is perfected and elevated, so that it is a collative sign and a title of itself demanding, and a cause of, present grace, and therefore a sacrament properly so called.
It is said: 1) matrimony, and not something added to it, so that matrimony itself in becoming and in fact, namely, the contract and the moral bond resulting therefrom, has been elevated to the dignity of a sacrament;
- between the baptized: for the evangelical law, which constitutes matrimony as a sacrament, is not applied except to those who are subjected to it by Baptism, while unbelievers have matrimony such as is sanctioned in the natural law; Baptism, namely, is a condition without which there cannot be the sacrament of matrimony, just as neither can there be the other sacraments;
- legitimately celebrated, or valid, so that there is no valid matrimony between the baptized which is not a sacrament;
- is a true and properly so-called sacrament of the New Law, a sign of a sacred thing insofar as it is sanctifying men, which not only signifies but also confers grace.
It is proved: A. From the Scriptures, which intimate this, Eph. V, 22-32: Let women be subject to their husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church: he is the savior of his body. But as the Church is subject to Christ, so also let wives be to their husbands in all things. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church and delivered himself up for her, that he might sanctify her... that she might be holy and immaculate. So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh: but nourishes and cherishes it, as also Christ does the Church. Because we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament, but I speak in Christ and in the Church. By these words it is indicated that matrimony is a) a sacred sign, b) a sign of grace, and c) a practical sign collative of grace.
1° It is a sacred sign. For after recounting the words of Adam, by which the intimate and most close conjunction of man and woman is expressed, so that they are two in one flesh, Paul adds: This is a sacrament (mysterion, i.e., a mystical sign), and indeed a great one: but I speak in Christ and in the Church (thus: εἰς Χριστὸν καὶ εἰς τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, i.e., unto Christ and unto the Church, or toward him and her), as if he were saying: the marital union, if considered in itself, seems an obvious and natural thing; nevertheless it must be called a great mystery, because as a sign it must be referred to the most high marriage of Christ with the Church, which in a wondrous and mysterious way it signifies.
2° It is a sign of grace. For it signifies the union of Christ with the Church; but this union is perfected through grace, for Christ loved the Church and delivered himself up for her that he might sanctify her, which cannot be done without grace; therefore matrimony is a sign of grace.
3° It is a practical sign, or a sign collative of grace, not a merely speculative sign as in the Old Testament.
The Apostle does not formally teach this, but he intimates it, as the Council of Trent, sess. 24, says, and supposes it. For:
a) The word sacrament, or mystical sign, is to be understood according to the diversity of times, so that in the broader sense it is taken for a bare sign of a sacred thing, which belongs to matrimony under the law of nature and the Mosaic law; now, however, in the stricter sense, for a sacred sign collative of grace, which belongs to matrimony under the new law, whose sacraments have this as proper to them, that they produce what they signify.
b) The Apostle, from the most lofty signification of matrimony, teaches that Christian spouses are obligated to that most excellent charity by which Christ loved the Church, and to that devoted subjection by which the Church is ordered to Christ; but this love and subjection ought to be something constant and permanent, just as the love of Christ and the subjection of the Church are permanent. But for such charity and subjection to be exhibited continually to one another, spouses need a permanent principle, namely, habitual grace with a right to actual helps. Therefore Paul intimates and supposes that this grace is truly conferred, by reason of the conjugal union insofar as it is a sign of the union of Christ and the Church.
c) The conjugal union, insofar as it is a sign of the union of Christ and the Church, orders the man and the woman to an end which is now of the same order as the end of the incarnation, namely, to offspring to be educated for the conservation and propagation of the Church. "For Christ," says St. Robert Bellarmine, De Matr. c. 4, "Christ and the Church always beget spiritual children through Baptism and nourish them through the Eucharist; and thus Christian spouses are obligated from marriage itself to divine offices. But offices which surpass nature are never committed by God unless at the same time grace is also given, through which those offices may be exercised as is fitting." Therefore the conjugal union, insofar as it is such a sacred sign, demands fitting graces and is an efficacious sign of grace, or a sacrament of the New Law.
B. From Tradition, which proposes the dogma, first implicitly, then explicitly, as is clear from the testimonies of the Fathers, the doctrine of Councils and Pontiffs, the voice of the liturgy and the monuments of antiquity, and the consensus of all the Eastern sects.
1° The Fathers teach: a) that Christ blessed matrimony and added sanctity to it: thus Epiphanius, haer. 67; Cyril of Alexandria, in Ioh. II, 2; the bishops in the Synod of Ephesus; Augustine, in Ioh. IX, 2.
b) That matrimony is a sacred thing, to be sealed by the solemn blessing of the Church, and joined with grace: thus Ignatius, ad Pol. V, 2; Tertullian, ad ux. II, 7-9; Origen, in Mt. XIV, 16; Ambrose, ep. ad Sir.; Pope Siricius, ep. 1, c. 4; Epiphanius, haer. 61 and 67.
c) That Christian matrimony surpasses the matrimony of unbelievers in dignity, and for this reason is a sacrament; which therefore must be understood of a sacrament properly so called, whence they compare it with Baptism and Order: thus Ambrose, De Abraham I, 7; Augustine, De bono coni. 18 and 24; De nupt. et conc. I, 10; Leo the Great, ep. 167, n. 4.
2° Pontiffs and Councils, just as theologians, from the twelfth century onward, more often explicitly enumerate matrimony among the seven sacraments of the Church: thus Lucius III in the Council of Verona, a. 1184; Innocent III in the profession of faith for the Waldenses; the profession of faith read in the Second Council of Lyons, a. 1274; the Council of Florence in the decree for the Armenians.
3° The liturgical books, namely, the Sacramentaries of the Latins and the Euchologia of the Greeks from the fifth century onward, speak in the same way: in them matrimony is shown to be a most holy thing, to be carried out amid the solemnities of Masses, and is called a sacrament, and God is prayed that he may bestow his grace on the spouses. And the monuments of antiquity show the celebration of marriage carried out with the blessing of Christ or under his patronage.
4° The dissenting Eastern Churches, whose schism was perfected from the fifth to the ninth century, all admit that matrimony is a true sacrament; therefore this doctrine was not introduced among them after the separation, but is shown to pertain to the common and ancient faith.
And although in the beginning the testimonies are ambiguous and obscure, nevertheless these are to be understood according to the express and clear doctrine of later times; because, since in the Church the explanation of doctrine is made under the assistance of the Spirit of Truth, if in later times matrimony is indubitably posited to be a sacrament properly so called, conferring grace ex opere operato, by that very fact it is demonstrated that this is the sense implicitly contained in the testimonies of primitive faith and revealed to the Apostles.
C. From the reason of fittingness, which confirms the thesis, and indeed in two ways: both from this, that the sacraments ought to provide for all the necessities of the spiritual life, and from this, that they were instituted as a remedy for concupiscence.
1° The sacraments were instituted for the necessities of the spiritual life, social as well as individual. But just as for spiritual society there is required the order of power by which it is ruled, so there is required matrimony by which it is conserved and propagated; moreover those who are destined to rule it or propagate it cannot duly fulfill their offices without grace. Therefore just as it was fitting to institute a sacrament for conferring grace on those who rule spiritual society, so also to institute matrimony as a sacrament which confers grace on those who are to propagate society.
2° The sacraments were instituted as a remedy for original sin and the evil concupiscence derived from it. But carnal concupiscence inclining to the propagation of the species is especially to be restrained; and matrimony affords an opportune remedy for it. Therefore it was fitting to institute matrimony as a sacrament collative of grace, by which carnal concupiscence is more efficaciously subjected to the bridle of reason.
781. When did Christ institute the sacrament of Matrimony? - He seems to have perfected this in a threefold stage:
1° he consecrated and sanctified nuptials by his presence at Cana of Galilee, John II, 1-11;
2° he sanctioned the essential properties of matrimony, namely, unity and indissolubility, and restored it in its primitive perfection, Mt. XIX, 3-9;
3° after his resurrection he definitively instituted it as a sacrament collative of grace, when the other sacraments had been instituted.
782. Corollaries. - 1. Christ elevated matrimony itself to sacramental dignity, namely, in becoming and in fact, and therefore not only the contract, nor only the bond, but both; as is clear from documents of the Church, which at one time assert that the matrimonial contract was elevated to the dignity of a sacrament, and at another time say the same of the bond itself, as will easily appear to the reader. So also St. Thomas, q. 42, a. 1, ad 1 and 2; a. 3, ad 2; q. 45, a. 1, ad 2.
- Hence, just as in the other sacraments, so in Matrimony, three things are distinguished (q. 42, a. 1, ad 5; a. 3, ad 2; q. 44, a. 1, ad 2):
a) The sacrament only, or the external sign which signifies and is not signified; and this is the contract itself, entered into by the externally apparent acts of man and woman, or the mutual expressed consent.
b) The reality and sacrament, which is at once signified and signifies; and this is the obligation which arises of the man toward the woman from such acts, or the conjugal bond representing the union of Christ and the Church: for it is signified and effected by the contract; it also signifies and demands and confers grace.
c) The reality which is signified and does not signify; and this is the effect of the sacrament, namely, sacramental grace for fulfilling the offices.
- Yet, since the bond is matrimony according to essence, and more so than the contract, hence also the sacrament of matrimony is principally in the bond, which principally signifies the conjunction of Christ with the Church. Namely, it was first elevated into a sacred sign of the union of Christ and the Church, and consequently also the mutual consent by which it is constituted was made a sacred rite. In the same way the sacrament of Order is primarily in the character, rather than in the external rite (n. 710).
783. Observation. - Certain Scholastics, although they counted Matrimony among the sanctifying sacraments, denied or doubted that it confers grace that makes one pleasing, such as Peter Lombard and Durandus. The true doctrine is defended by St. Thomas, q. 42, a. 3, and indeed quite firmly in I-II, q. 100, a. 2, ad 6 and C. Gent. IV, 78; afterward it was explicitly proposed by the Church in the Councils of Florence and Trent.