English
EspañolDo you like to live in ignorance or deceit regarding what is most important? I am sure you do not. Attention! This might be occurring to you when it comes to marriage.
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“The choice of a civil marriage or, in many cases, of simple cohabitation, is often not motivated by prejudice or resistance to a sacramental union, but by cultural or contingent situations.” In such cases, respect also can be shown for those signs of love which in some way reflect God’s own love. We know that there is “a continual increase in the number of those who, after having lived together for a long period, request the celebration of marriage in Church. Simply to live together is often a choice based on a general attitude opposed to anything institutional or definitive; it can also be done while awaiting more security in life (a steady job and steady income). In some countries, de facto unions are very numerous, not only because of a rejection of values concerning the family and matrimony, but primarily because celebrating a marriage is considered too expensive in the social circumstances. As a result, material poverty drives people into de facto unions.” (The Joy of Love, n.294)
Commentary
Today the truth about marriage is obscured by a tangle of clichés, errors, and ignorance. The fact that many who have “married” have failed and, on top of that, their disagreements have turned into hell contributes to the confusion and discredit. “What do some documents add?” they say, believing marriage is nothing more than some documents you sign and later on complicate your life. On the other hand, we witness quite the contrary; there is the fact that the vast majority of people judge a stable family as a blessing and want it for their lives.
Among the circumstances, prejudices, and clichés that lead to postponing the sacrament of marriage is the lack of faith and religious practice and the scarce formation on the nature of the sacrament. Regarding the latter, it is often referred to as a mere “regularization” of the situation; that is, just another formality. It is not understood that the transforming action of God is involved, which allows two to become one flesh. In being one, the spouses embrace Jesus Christ himself as the most intimate, faithful, and powerful ally of their conjugal union. Just as the bread and wine are no longer the same after the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the words of consecration, neither are the spouses the same after they have been united in marriage. The outward appearances of the sign do not change, but the substance does. Just as the bread and wine have been irreversibly transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, so the contracting parties have been irreversibly transformed into spouses, and their union inserted into the faithful and indissoluble union with which Jesus Christ loves, tends, accompanies, and is united to his Church.
When the two spouses live this intimate alliance with Jesus Christ within their conjugal union, they enter more and more each day into that unit they conform, their love is creatively inspired. They are strengthened in the face of any adverse circumstance of life. There is no divorce between spouses who, by common consent, live alongside Jesus Christ in their union of love. This is referred to as the graces and strengths of the sacrament of matrimony.
