The Third Blessing: Sacramental Quality

It means two things: indissolubility of the conjugal bond and the elevation of marriage to the dignity of a Sacrament of the New Law.

Because in classical Latin usage, sacramentum is used to designate an obligatory bond, a consecration, a binding promise.

Yes, every validly contracted marriage is indissoluble, as far as the parties are concerned, and even as far as any human power is concerned.

That is the teaching of the Church, based on these words of Our Lord: “What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder” (St. Matth. xix, 6).

Because God, the Author of order and of the law, can in His wisdom, for the sake of a higher good, make exceptions.

He has made none for marriage contracted between two Christians or baptized persons, which was afterward consummated by the use of the rights of wedlock. But He has given to the Sovereign Pontiff the power to dissolve, for grave reasons, marriage which has not been consummated. The tradition and practice of the Church make this power certain. Moreover, we know through St. Paul that a marriage which has been contracted between two unbaptized persons, may, after the baptism of one of them, be dissolved in favor of the Faith. If the spouse who has not been baptized refuses to cohabit with the party who has been converted to Christianity, under conditions which are acceptable to the latter, the Christian party can marry a Catholic, and from the time of this new marriage the former marriage is dissolved, and the unbaptized party is also free from the bond. Lastly, according to an opinion which is enjoying more and more credit, a marriage which has been consummated while it was not a Sacrament, can, like a Christian marriage which has never been consummated, be dissolved by the Sovereign Pontiff for grave reasons.

Yes, but as we saw in Number 15, Christ revoked this indulgence, which, as He said, had been accorded to the Jewish people because of the hardness of their hearts.

In Other Words, How Does Even Such a Marriage Come to be Beyond the Power of the Sovereign Pontiff? The ultimate reason for this inflexibility may be found in the mystical signification of Christian marriage. According

to St Paul (Ephes. v, 32), marriage between Christians reproduces the perfect union which exists forever between Christ and His Church. Now this reproduction is achieved in its perfection in marriage between baptized persons, which has been consummated. Common sense teaches us that by the use of the conjugal right marriage receives a sort of completion; something irreparable has taken place; the affective and verbal self-surrender has been supplemented by an actual physical one which justifies the expression, very significant in itself, of “consummated marriage.” It is consummated, we may say, in the physical order, and it is also consummated in the symbolical and mystical order, in which it represents the indefectible union between Christ and His Church. In a perfect representation of this union, the indefectibility of the union must have its own symbol; and it has it in the absolutely indissoluble marriage. Such is the reasonable explanation which we offer, as the Sovereign Pontiff says, with respect, as a help to grasp the meaning of that indissolubility which we know with certainty from the teaching of the Church.

On the contrary, this indissolubility is a great blessing for the institution of marriage. By removing the fear of a breach, it makes way for that full intimacy which is the joy of the home; it secures to each of the partners the peaceful possession of the other through good times and bad times; it prevents disagreements from growing into bitterness; it is a bulwark against temptations by making dreams of criminal indulgence impossible of realization; it is an assurance to the spouses that through charms that pass away and temporal goods that disappoint the heart, their union is designed to lead them to that higher end which is attained only in the next life. To the children, this indissolubility is a pledge of care and right education. It is often hard enough for children who have lost father or mother, to see a person who has been an utter stranger to them lawfully take the place of the parent whose loss they feel. Moral rectitude in the family, of which indissolubility is one of the safeguards, is as beneficial to society as it is to the individuals who practise it. No doubt some marriages

are unhappy, often through the fault or imprudence of those who suffer from them. But is that a reason for disturbing the right order of all marriages, for compromising and lessening the happiness of every conjugal union, and so multiplying those very misfortunes which it is thought to remedy?

Yes, this was defined by the Council of Trent in the XXIV Session in which the Council laid down the doctrine of marriage. In Canon 1, the Council pronounced an anathema against anyone who should say that matrimony is not truly and properly one of the seven Sacraments of the New Law instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

No, only the marriage of Christians, that is of persons who are validly baptized, is a Sacrament.

We mean a marriage contracted between two persons who are baptized. According to an opinion which has become morally certain, the marriage of a baptized person with an unbaptized person, even with the dispensation of the Church, is not a Sacrament. The reason is that in such a case the Sacrament, existing in only one of the parties, would be, as it were, lame; and because to represent the union between Christ and the Church, the matrimonial union itself must be representative, which it cannot be if it exists in only one of the parties.

It would, provided both were validly baptized.

It is a sensible sign, instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ, to produce the grace which it signifies. Essentially, therefore, there are in every Sacrament an exterior sensible sign,

and a grace signified, which is also produced by the application of the sign.

Our Lord established as the sensible sign the exchange of consent by which the spouses give themselves to each other for the conjugal life.

It is the grace which is needed for a union worthy of Christians; hence one that is sufficient for the exercise of all the rights, for the accomplishment of all the duties, for the shouldering of all the burdens, for the innocent enjoyment of all the benefits which such a union implies. This grace, called sacramental grace, includes first sanctifying grace, or rather, since matrimony is a Sacrament of the living, normally an increase of sanctifying grace; and also all the actual helps which are absolutely needed or useful in conjugal life; in a word, all the graces which are proper to that state of life. This Sacrament not only increases sanctifying grace, the permanent principle of the supernatural life, in those who, as the expression is, place no obstacle (obex) in its way, but also adds particular gifts, dispositions, seeds of grace, by elevating and perfecting the natural powers in such a way that the parties are assisted not only in understanding but in knowing intimately, in adhering to firmly, in willing effectively, and in successfully putting into practice those things which pertain to the marriage state, its aims and duties. In fine, it gives them the right to the actual assistance of grace, whensoever they need it for fulfilling the duties of their state.¹ The Encyclical, therefore, distinguishes between a group of actual helps, which it calls particular gifts, good inclinations, seeds of grace (sanctifying grace is meant)— synonymous expressions, all these—whose immediate purpose is to reinforce supernaturally, that is to elevate, the natural powers; and a group of aids which are to go into operation only at the prayer of the parties to the marriage. The Encyclical thus attributes a peculiar efficacy to the prayer of the parties to obtain what is necessary or useful to them in every situation in which they may find themselves. In fact, according to the teaching of St. Augustine,² God does give ^Pp. 33, 34. **De bono perseverantiae , throughout, e. g. Ch. XI; Latin Patrology, 45, 1017.

certain graces directly, whereas for other graces He waits for our cooperation with the grace of prayer which He always gives.

¹ Pp. 33, 34.

² De dono perseverantiae, passim, e. g. Ch. XI; PL, 45, 101[-]. (The final digit is illegible in the scan. — ed.)

An opinion which has some authority, but which is not obligatory extends to all the Sacraments what we must hold as certain in the case of the three Sacraments that imprint a character on the soul: Baptism, Confirmation, and Orders. This character is a real supernatural quality which is immediately signified by the exterior sign, and which itself in turn immediately signifies the sacramental grace to which it confers a title. Thus through Baptism in the name of the Holy Trinity man receives the character of a Christian; by Confirmation he receives the mark of a soldier of Christ; by Orders, that of a minister of sacred offices. The Christian needs the sacramental grace of a Christian life; the soldier needs the grace of supernatural weapons required or useful in battles; the sacred minister needs the gifts which are necessary for the fulfilment of his sacred mission. Now whereas it is only in these three Sacraments that we have to acknowledge the physical reality of a character, yet the analogy of the Sacraments and the natural proximate meaning of the exterior sign lead us to recognize the immediate title as sign for receiving grace as inhering in a reality of the moral order,¹ which is directly or immediately signified by the exterior sign. Let us apply this to marriage. What does the consent of the parties signify? What does it immediately produce? A permanent bond. But this permanent bond involves the conjugal life, with all its rights and duties, its fecundity, its vicissitudes; it, moreover, requires the graces of that state of life. Consequently the meaning of the grace of matrimony clearly appears in this bond, which is thus found to be signified by the consent, and at the same time significative of the sacramental grace. The need of this supernatural grace, and the right to it, appear still more evident when we learn from the Apostle that Christians must represent or symbolize the union of Christ and His Church.

¹ A reality of the moral order is for example some quality which without affecting a person physically yet confers upon him rights and duties. Such is the jurisdiction of a judge, the authority of a ruler.

First, it follows that the spouses themselves are the ministers of the Sacrament. In the beautiful language of the Encyclical they open up for themselves a treasure of sacramental graces. The priest is there as a qualified witness, like a notary whose presence is required for certain contracts although he himself is not a party to them. The blessing of the priest is an accidental complementary rite. It calls down blessings on a marriage which is already contracted, on a Sacrament which is already received. Secondly, it follows that two baptized persons cannot contract a valid marriage without that marriage being a Sacrament. They may be ignorant of the doctrine of the Church regarding marriage; they may not even know that they are baptized; they will, nevertheless, confer upon themselves and receive the Sacrament, even though they do not know it. Alas, if they have become irreligious it may be that they do not want the Sacrament; it may be that they reject this honor and grace. If their refusal is absolute, if it is not virtually retracted by the preponderant intention of being united in marriage, then their consent will be inoperative; they will be husband and wife only in appearance, whereas in reality they will be companions in concubinage.

This consequence, that the partners, even though their dispositions were at first bad, can, if their hearts are changed by true conversion, count on the sacramental graces of matrimony. On the other hand, if they go on to the end in their evil way, this bond which was intended to make them holy, will, like every grace which is guiltily rejected, aggravate their guilt and condemnation. Let us hear on this point the consoling but admonitory teaching of the Encyclical : The Faithful, once joined by marriage ties, can never be deprived of the help and the binding force of the Sacrament. Indeed, as the holy doctor [St. Augustine]¹ adds, even M De nuptUs et concupiscentia, Book I, chapter 10; Latin Patrology, 44, 420.

those who commit adultery carry with them the sacred yoke, although in this case not as a title to the glory of grace but for the ignominy of their guilty action, “as the soul by apostasy, withdrawing as it were from marriage with Christ, even though it may have lost its faith, does not lose the Sacrament of Faith which it received with the laver of regeneration.”²

¹ De nuptiis et concupiscentia, L. I, c. 10; PL, 44, 420.

² P. 34.