Question Three: On the Effects and Goods of Matrimony

S. Th., Suppl. q. 42, a. 3; q. 49 and q. 65, a. 1.

792. The effects of matrimony are some natural, others supernatural: for some belong to it insofar as it is a contract, others insofar as it is a sacrament. The natural effects are perfected by the supernatural, so that they are found in Christian matrimony in a much more perfect way.

793. The natural effects are the three intrinsic goods of matrimony, which are enumerated by St. Augustine, De bono coni. I, 32: "All these are goods, on account of which nuptials are good: offspring, fidelity, sacrament." This doctrine was commonly received by the Scholastics and adopted by the Council of Florence. The good of offspring is its procreation, education, and religious instruction. The good of fidelity is the mutual faithfulness which spouses owe to each other, by which positively one renders the conjugal debt to the other, and negatively neither is commingled with another person. The good of the sacrament, i.e., of the sacred sign, is the firmness and indissolubility which matrimony has by reason of its sacred signification, insofar as it is a sign representing the indissoluble union of Christ and the Church; whence it belongs also to the matrimony of unbelievers, although the firmness is stronger in the sacramental matrimony of the faithful. Thus Augustine, De Gen. ad litt. IX, 7:

"In fidelity it is attended to that, apart from the conjugal bond, there be no lying together with another man or another woman; in offspring, that it be received lovingly, nourished kindly, educated religiously; in sacrament, however, that the marriage not be separated, and that one dismissed, male or female, not be joined to another even for the sake of offspring. This is as it were the rule of nuptials, by which either the fecundity of nature is adorned or the depravity of incontinence is ruled."

St. Thomas observes, q. 49, a. 3, that among these three goods the third, namely, the good of the sacrament, is more worthy, and also more essential if it is considered in itself, because indissolubility is an essential property of matrimony according to itself, which cannot be lacking from its being, while offspring and fidelity, if considered in themselves, pertain to the use of matrimony and can be lacking. But if offspring and fidelity are considered according as they are in their principles, so that for offspring there is taken the intention of offspring, and for fidelity the duty of preserving fidelity, thus they are essential in such a way that without them matrimony cannot exist; - indeed thus offspring is first and most essential in matrimony, and fidelity second, and sacrament third. In the same way, it is more essential to man to have the being of nature than the being of grace, although the being of grace is more worthy.

794. The supernatural effect of matrimony is grace unitive of souls and restraining of concupiscence. - This the Council of Trent, sess. 24, explains: "Grace... which would perfect natural... love, and confirm indissoluble unity, and sanctify spouses (as generators, namely, so that they might be able to educate children to holiness), Christ himself, the institutor and perfecter of the venerable sacraments, merited for us by his passion."

Matrimony confers:

1° Habitual grace making one pleasing, which is of faith from the Council of Trent, sess. 24, can. 1, just as for the other sacraments: per se indeed second grace, because the sacrament was not instituted for blotting out sins but for sanctifying spouses; per accidens, however, probably first grace, if it is received in good faith by a contrite sinner who judges himself disposed. For it is fitting that those who ought to multiply and educate the children of God should themselves also be constituted children of God through grace.

2° Special sacramental grace, which supplies to grace making one pleasing a special help and a habitual vigor of powers assisting toward fulfilling the offices of marriage holily and moderating concupiscence, which draws back from these offices. Namely, it is given for conserving and perfecting conjugal love, for preserving fidelity and conjugal chastity integrally, for educating offspring well, and for bearing the other burdens of matrimony.

3° Consequently, a right to actual graces necessary for this end, to be obtained at opportune times throughout the whole of life.

Therefore, by receiving the sacrament of matrimony, the faithful, says Pius XI, "open for themselves the treasure of sacramental grace, from which they may draw supernatural powers for faithfully, holily, and perseveringly fulfilling, even to death, their duties and offices.

"For this sacrament, in those who do not place an obstacle, as they say, not only a) increases the permanent principle of supernatural life, namely, sanctifying grace, but also b) adds peculiar gifts, good motions of soul, seeds of grace, by increasing and perfecting the powers of nature, so that spouses may be able not only to understand by reason, but intimately to savor and firmly to hold, efficaciously to will and to fulfill in deed, whatever pertains to the conjugal state and its ends and offices; c) finally, it grants them a right to actual help to be obtained as often as they need it for fulfilling the duties of this state."

Here, besides the very grace making one pleasing, several things are indicated: peculiar added gifts, which rather indicate permanent habitual powers; - good motions, which are inspirations of actual grace; - seeds of grace, which seem to be the seeds of both deposited in the soul and afterward to be stirred up; - finally, the right to special actual help, but to be obtained by prayer, when it is more necessary.

But just as, the Pontiff continues, through Baptism and Order a man is deputed and consecrated by an indelible character to sacred duties, so by the conjugal bond, which in Christians is truly sacred, they are permanently deputed and as it were consecrated to the offices of Christian matrimony: not indeed by a character, because it is not a physical seal and does not grant sacred power, but by a bond of the moral order, which nevertheless is a permanent title to the sacramental grace necessary to spouses. From this it seems necessary to conclude that this sacrament revives during the whole time of marriage, in the case in which an obstacle is present and is removed.

795. Observations. - 1. Matrimony and its use are made honorable by its three goods, as Billuart shows from St. Thomas, diss. 4, a. 1: "No wise man ought to sustain any loss except for some recompense of an equal or better good. But in Matrimony several losses are incurred, several damages and inconveniences, which are compensated by these three assigned goods. Therefore. The minor is proved: Three chief damages and inconveniences are incurred in matrimony: 1st, lust, and from it the resulting detriment of the use of reason, debility of body, and dullness of the senses; and this damage is compensated by the good of offspring, or the procreation of children by whom the human race is propagated and God is perpetually worshiped. - The 2nd damage is the troublesome solicitude of pleasing the co-party, of receiving, conceiving, bearing, educating offspring, and providing for the things of the family; and this damage is compensated by the good of fidelity, by which one is held to render the debt to the other, nor can one be commingled with another. - The 3rd damage is a certain perpetual subjection or servitude by which the man is bound to the woman and the woman to the man; and that damage is compensated by the good of the sacrament, i.e., of the indissoluble bond, by which spouses represent the conjunction of Christ with the Church, and are held to love each other, as Christ loved the Church... Although this damage is much more compensated by the good of the sacrament properly taken for the efficacious sign of grace, insofar as it sanctifies spouses, confers on them supernatural helps for loving each other, and for sweetly and faithfully performing the other matrimonial duties and burdens even to the end of life."

Yet these goods are not an extrinsic cause excusing per accidens, on the part of the agent, something which otherwise would be evil; but they are "of the notion of matrimony," which on the part of the act is made honorable by these things intrinsic to it, "as though causing in it the honorableness which belongs to it according to itself," as St. Thomas says, q. 49, a. 1, ad 2.

2. The aforesaid goods, although they ought to be present in every matrimony, nevertheless are in Christian matrimony in a much more perfect way, as is luminously clear from the encyclical of Pius XI Casti connubii.

3. Moreover, the goods are of such great moment that sins opposed to them are mortal from their genus, and the exclusion of their obligation or debt from the contract of marriage would render it invalid.

4. In the cited encyclical Pius XI is wholly occupied in declaring the three goods, and in denouncing opposed errors and vices: a) To the good of offspring are opposed conjugal onanism, attack upon the life of offspring, unjust prohibition of marriage, or sterilization for eugenic reasons. - b) To the good of fidelity, adulterous violation of conjugal chastity, emancipation of the woman or violation of her subordination to the man, and violation of conjugal love. - c) To the good of the sacrament, secularization of matrimony, mixed marriages, and divorce.