The Module 7 lecture slides begin with the instruction to listen carefully to the song, “There is Love,” by Paul Stookey. It is a simple, yet emotionally moving acoustic piece, and with an equally simple message about man and woman joining together in marriage, with a sacred bond rooted in God’s love.
Per Tkacik’s ask to pay close attention to the lyrics and how they apply to the topic of marriage in the course material, two lines from the song help set the stage for why marriage, albeit its challenging evolution in Church history, is ultimately about man and woman joined together by the covenant relationship rooted in God’s covenant with humankind: They shall travel on where the two shall be as one; the union of your spirits has caused him to remain.
Beginning in Genesis, God forms his first covenant with humankind by creating man and woman in his image and likeness, joining them together in a covenantal union, and instructing them to be “fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). In essence, God had formed the first human family. At the core of God’s desire to form a family is love — which is how God is defined in Catholic Christian belief (“God IS love”; “God is goodness”) and what underpins the familial relationship between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Therefore, humankind is to represent God’s love; and in the union between man and woman, humans are gifted with a combination nuptial and conjugal means to live out love together while also bringing new life and love into the world (Tkacik Module 7 Slide 8, 9).
Yet, as Fiorenza points out, the more systematic understanding of marriage in Scripture is not as well-def as how it was developed later on in Church history (586), particularly throughout the Medieval era. Still, both the Old and New Testaments provide enough detail about marriage to help understand the array of views about its function, the role of men and women in marriage, and why covenant is key to understanding marriage as a sacrament.
In the Old Testament, for instance, the prophets often relate marriage to God’s covenant with Israel. Hosea, who, despite launching into a heated tirade about his wife’s infidelity and prostitution lifestyle, and which mirrors Israel’s unfaithfulness to God’s covenant (Hosea 2:4-15; 3:1-5; 11:1-11) reveals God’s enduring love and commitment to the covenant he established with the Israelites. The same pattern of God’s covenantal love with Israel, and how this can once again between tied to marriage as covenant, can be found in Ezekiel 16, Isaiah 54, and Malachi 2:14-16 (Tkacik Module 7 Slide 9, 10).
Moving into the New Testament, the principle of covenant relationship between God and humankind remains: not only in Jesus’ words — “for this is the blood of my covenant” — during the Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:28), but also in the new realization that the Yahweh/Israel covenant has been fulfilled through Jesus’ death and resurrection, which then symbolizes the covenantal relationship between Christ and the Church (Tkacik Module 7 Slide 11).
And here is where the roots of marriage eventually becoming a sacrament turn a bit complex, with multiple views of marriage versus the ascetic life in Christian belief sprouting up during the Apostolic Age. But first, in the Gospels, Jesus makes multiple references to marriage, giving some spiritual insight to its meaning, but not as a complete guidebook to preparing for, and then entering into, marriage. However, Jesus does, in so many words, stress the sacredness of the marital bond and why divorce and remarriage should be shunned (Matt 5:31; Mark 10:11-12; Luke 16:18).
As the Apostles spread the Gospel message, while also helping form churches and community hubs for people to fellowship together and participate in the liturgy, Christians face a fork-in-the-road type dilemma of how to grow and maintain a chaste, pious, devotional spiritual life: Enter into marriage and uphold its relationship to belief in Christ; or practice a strictly pious life in asceticism and remain celibate. It turned that asceticism was the more popular choice among Christians, with Paul and other Christians teaching the value of being unmarried and how it helps believers concentrate advanced the Church’s missions (Fiorenza 590).
However, the deutero-Pauline and Pastoral epistles put marriage in a greater light, showing its value as coming from God and how husbands and wives should build their relationship upon Christian belief. As Matthew 5:31 is considered a key influence on the Church’s view of divorce, Ephesians 5:21-33 is the staple Biblical reference for how marriage is fundamentally defined, what are its parallels to the relationship between Christ and the Church, and why the Church would later on institute marriage as a sacrament (Fiorenza 591).
Now, as Ephesians 5:21-33 has also been the subject of much theological speculation and debate, particularly because of how it describes male and female roles within a marriage, perhaps contemporary theologians are using too much of a “presentism” approach to the topic. Nevertheless, it is important, as with any exegetical take on Scripture, to factor the entire context of the passage, while not leaning solely on cultural factors, the historical-critical method, or perhaps any socio-political agendas.
Given this context (no pun intended), the household codes and husband / wife relationship described in Ephesians 5:21-33 can also be viewed through the lens of God’s covenant relationship with humankind — specifically, Christ as bridegroom to the Church, and that through this spiritual marriage, both Christ and the Church are to serve each other for the greater glory of the triune God. In fact, in the Greek text, phobos / hypostassesthai refer to covenantal relationships. As Christ enters into a covenant relationship with the Church (remember his words in Matthew 26:28), the Church, as Christ’s bride, is to honor the covenant as an eternally reciprocal bond (Tkacik Module 11 Slide 11; Fiorenza 591). Again, barring any discussion that, in the current climate, often sadly devolves into polarizing debates about human social evolution and sweeping criticisms about the “patriarchy,” the forest-through-the-trees interpretation still leads to being in covenant with God and having a marriage that reflects covenantal love.
Which then points to the next question: How did surrounding cultural practices, as well as the Church’s ongoing efforts to build out its theology and ecclesiology, lead to marriage becoming a sacrament? As all cultures, throughout history, have had some degree of influence on one another’s customs and social traditions, early Christians, especially during the Apostolic and early Patristic Ages, borrowed from Greek and Roman cultures to create the cadence for the marriage ceremony. The ceremony included traditions (and which have been common in most wedding ceremonies to this day) such as the presentation of the bride, the joining of hands between bride and groom, exchanging rings, sealing the wedding with a kiss, and having a celebration afterward — and which could not be complete without the wedding cake! (Tkacik Module 7 Slide 14).
Still, while Catholic Christian marriages were influenced by civil practices and especially Roman law, the Church continued to work through its theological understanding of marriage, which Fiorenza breaks down into three of the most influential developments in Church history: Augustine’s view on marriage as a sacrament, how the evolved into the Medieval Era and was then officially instituted, and how Catholic Church has expanded its view on marriage within the past century or so (Fiorenza 592).
According to Augustine, marriage was a kind of a double-edged sword: On one hand, because Augustine’s views on marriage related to his contributions to the theology behind Original Sin, sex was a “venue for lust, appetites, and passions of the flesh.” On the other hand, if the marriage is firmly grounded in the three ends of goods — mutual consolation, procreation, and indissolubility — then it strives to reflect the covenantal love between Christ and the Church. In fact, much of Augustine’s perspective on marriage involves explaining the relationship between covenant (old and new) and marriage. Moreover, marriage as a sacrament is to signify unity and peace among humankind (Tkacik Module 7 AVP; Fiorenza 593, 594).
Building on marriage’s combination of civil, theological, and ecclesiological meaning, the Church in the Medieval Era adds new and/or updated dimensions to the sacrament: The Church becomes the physical place to hold wedding ceremonies, and priests have a more formal role in presiding over the wedding — which, per Scholastic contributions to Church theology and ecclesiology — supports the ontological reasons for ordained clergy to carry out sacraments and serve as a vicar of Christ (Tkacik Module 6 Slide 15; Fiorenza 596). These actions would lead to Pope Innocent III, in the thirteenth century, formally identifying marriage as a sacrament. Then, in the sixteenth century, and after prior councils had also affirmed the sacrament, the Council of Trent essentially finalized all affirmations. That is, wedding ceremonies must be performed by a priest, and that this instruction was “in accordance” with the Gospel’s teachings on marriage (Tkacik Module 7 Slide 16; Fiorenza 597, 598).
Within the past century, the Church has continued to expand out its understanding of marriage, including recognizing that both men and women have evolved socially, and that marriage must have a balanced purpose. In other words, although marriage is meant to be a covenantal union between man and woman, based on the covenant relationship with God, the partnership between husband and wife is just as necessary as their desire bring children into the world (Fiorenza 598).
Vatican II, as part of its wide assessment regarding its role in the modern world, highlighted yet another core dimension to marriage: It is not only involves the covenantal love between husband and wife, but it is also an “act of ecclesial worship and the expression of faith that serves as a sign of the Church’s unity.” Call it an even more robust definition of covenantal love: Just as the Church is to be a sacrament in itself to the world, marriage should symbolize the love that Christ has for the Church (Tkack Module 7 Slide 17). As Tkacik quotes from Gaudium et spes, “The family, because it arises from marriage, which is an image of the covenant of love of Christ and the church, and a participation in this covenant, will disclose to all the living presence of the savior in the world, as well as show the authentic nature of the church” (#48).
Meaning that marriage, which creates or adds to a family, is to be a church in itself. Therefore, as a domestic church, marriage is also a sign of God’s grace and covenantal love — not only as a sacrament in its institution, but also a powerful means to communicate the fullness of Catholic Christian belief and God’s love for humankind (Tkacik and McGonigle 63). This not only helps promote a society based on strong family values, but it also encourages the Church community to see the wider familial relationship with one another and importance of building deeper connections rooted in God’s love and grace (Tkacik and McGonigle 64, 65). After all, isn’t that the meaning of covenant?
Works Cited
Fiorenza, Francis S., and John P. Galvin, eds. Systematic Theology: Roman Catholic Perspectives. 2nd ed. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011.
Gaudium et Spes. https://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html
Tkacik Michael J., and Thomas M. McGonigle, O.P. Pneumatic Correctives: What is the Spirit Saying to the Church of the 21st Century? Lanham, Maryland: University Press of America, 2007.
Tkacik, Michael J. Saint Leo University, 2023.
Tkacik, Michael J. Saint Leo University, 2023.