Małżeństwo chrześcijan jako sakrament

Abstract

The Christian symbolism of the sacraments is based on the capability of the earthly realities to represent a reality different from what they them selves are by their nature. First of all, however, the sacraments arise from the sacramental nature of the Church. The Church employs seven ritual gesturos to intervene in human life in its crucial existential situations (proto-situations), which are there by embraced in the mystery of the incarnation and the paschal offering of Christ, that proto-sacrament of God and His salvation. Marriage as a fundamental proto-situation „gains sense” in the Christian faith: the earthly reality of marriage becomes a ,,mystery of salvation”; it is experienced as a special relation to God in Christ and in the Church. We do not need to look for Christ’s words instituting marriage in the Gospel. It is sufficient that Christ included the reality of marriage in the Kingdom of God coming in His word and work. Tho Christological aspect of marriage stands out particularly clearly in the teaching of St. Paul (1 Co. 7:39; Ep. 5:21-33). The sacramentality of marriage means that love between a man and a woman is a special form and way in which God’s eternal love and faithfulness towards people, offered the most fully in Christ and continued in the Church, Christ’s Betrothed, is actualized in history. Marriage thus is a sacrament of Christ and of the Church; it is a sign (a real symbol) indicating and actualizing the unity between Christ and the Church. Marriage is a „concretization” of the Church as the saorament of Christ; it is a form of the Church’s life and presence in the world; it realizes and builds the Church ‒ hence the terms „the domestic Church” and „the domestic sanctuary of the Church” used in reference to the family in Lumen Gentium 11 and Apostolicam Actuositatem 11. The spouses themselves are the ministers of the sacrament. The liturgical function of the priest, rather than being formal and juridical, serves to bring out the eoclesial dimension of marriage. The sacrament in constituted on the foundations of baptism and faith by the contracting of a matrimonial „covenant”. The word „covenant” is now superseding the traditional heavily charged expressions „contract” and „institution”. Personal and communal-ecclesial elements cooperate in the sacramentality of marriage. The sacramentality of marriage must not be limited to the wedding ceremony allone. It is dynamic; it is a process. Marriage, like the Eucharist (Cardinal R. Bellarmin, Pius IX), is a permanent sacrament. It can be considered at the moment of coming into existence (in statu fieri) and as it continues (in facto esse). The sacramental grace is the constant presence of God in the life of the married oouple. Owing to the grace the entire reality of marriage is sustained by the love of the Father, the saving power of Christ and the unifying dynamism of Christ’s Spirit. A visible sign of marriage as a permanent sacrament is the „community of life and love” Among the many sings of that love, the intimate bodily union of spouses is particularly significant in that it expresses and actualizes the lovo that God has for His people and Christ for the Church and in its connection with sacramental grace. The article concludes with a few question marks regarding doctrine and teaching. They concern the problem of degrees of sacramentality of marriage (hidden fundamentally Christian and full sacramentality), the relation between faith and the sacrament, and love as the essential matter” of marriage.