Marriage in God’s plan

CFC 1881

Inherent to human nature, spousal relationship serves as the tangible external sign

Foundational human reality

Inherent to human nature (CFC 1881), spousal relationship serves as the tangible external sign

Image of divine love

Human intimacy reflected god’s unfailing love, created through love and called to loved

FC 11

God created man in his own image, calling him to existence through love, he called him at the same time for love

Marriage as covenant love, CFC 1881

Marriage is a unique sacrament in that the vocation of marriage itself is a foundational human reality built into the very created nature of man and woman

Marriage

__ is a unique sacrament in that the vocation of __ itself is a foundational human reality built into the very created nature of man and woman

Love relationship

In marriage the external sign is the __ between the spouses

Life-long commitment

It is a __ of total conjugal intimacy and self-giving of the married partners

Natural covenant

The bible reveals this __ of love as the image/symbol of God the creator’s absolute and unfailing love

Through god’s love

Created male and female, human persons are created __

Love

In the image of god who is __, and called to __ one another in sharing this

Priestly account

Social purpose procreation

Priestly account

Shared participation in god’s creative work to propagate human life

Yahwist account

Personal purpose: union

Yahwist account

Mutual support, intimacy, and total personal partnership

Priestly account, yahwist creation account

The two inspired accounts of creation in genesis

Priestly account

Social purpose

Procreation

Propagating the human race by sharing in god’s own creativity

Yahwist creation account

Focuses more specifically on the creation of man, who is made complete only by the creation of women

Personal purpose, union

__ of marriage as the mutual love, support, and unity of the couple

Integral unity, continuous becoming, essential equality

Pillars of conjugal unity and eqality

Integral unity

Harmonious alignment across physical, psychological, and spiritual dimensions

Continuous becoming

Lifelong evolution transforming I and Thou into a unified We

Essential equality

Equal capacity for knowing, willing, and self-giving in god’s image

One body/flesh

It is not just physical unity but the unity of two person in all their basic human levels, physical, psychological, and spiritual, or body, mind, and heart or spirit

One body/flesh

This unity does not mean losing one’s own identity nor yielding to domination by the other

Least common denominator

Authentic human love does not reduce persons to __, but rather consists in the communion and sharing of unique persons in their very uniqueness

Become

To __ implies a lifelong process, only begun on their wedding day, of the gradual transformation of an I and a Thou into a We

Becoming one body

The essential condition for this __ is the basic equality of male and females, asserted in the creation account

God’s creation design, distortion by human sin

Disruption of the original ideal:

Equal partnership

Shared dignity in divine likeness

Mutual communion

Unbroken trust and self-giving

Harmonious coexistence

Perfect unity of heart and mind

Domination

He shall be your master

Mutual accusation

Division replacing oneness

Infidelity and breakdown

Hardness of heart

Failure in conjugal unity/equality

Human history presents one long account of failing to live up to this creation ideal of becoming one body

Sin

It is __, not god’s plan, that changes marriage from conjugal union of equal partners into mutual accusation and domination of one by the other

Creation order

Stage 1 of marriage in the arc of redemption

Old covenant symbol

Stage 2 of marriage in the arc of redemption

Sacramental elevation

Stage 3 of marriage in the arc of redemption

Creation order

Natural covenant inscribed in human nature as a sign of god’s love

Old covenant symbol

Prophetic imagery of marriage depicting god’s unfailing covenant with israel

Sacramental elevation

Christ transforms human love into the sign of new covenant redemption

Marriage in god’s redemptive plan

God, ever faithful to his covenant of love, included marriage and family in his __

Marriage

The old testament prophets, by using __ as a symbol of god’s covenant with his chosen people, had already pictured marriage as a covenant which should imitate god’s own fidelity

Creation

But it was only through jesus christ that the covenant of human love, symbol of god’s love for his people in __

New covenant of christ’s redemptive love

Could be raised to become the sacrament of the __ with his people, the church

The new covenant

Jesus is god’s __ with his people

In person

God and man united in one person

Jesus

He is god’s perfect self-gift to man, and man’s loving response to god

Jesus

The new adam, god has redeemed all of us, members of the first adam’s race

Jesus

Is the bridegroom of god’s new covenant people who are invited to share the wedding feast in god’s kingdom

Marriage, image of the new covenant

Can properly be understood only in terms of christ’s saving work, how jesus loves his people, the church, and gives himself up for her

One body

Jesus’ own teaching on marriage went back to god’s original creative ideal of man and woman become __

John paul II

Develops this basic truth in focusing on one effect of the sacrament of marriage

New heart, new spirit

I will give you a __ and place a __ within you, taking from your bodies your stony hearts and giving you natural hearts. I will put my spirit within you and make you live by my statutes

Sacrament of matrimony

Christ renews the first plan that the creator had inscribed in the hearts of man and woman, and in the celebration of the __ offers a new heart

The testament ground, ephesians

This understanding of christ’s teaching on marriage as a new covenant of love is confirmed in the famous text from __

Covenant between christ and the church

The covenant between man and woman is seen as the image of the __

Out of reverence for christ

The mutual giving way to one another is precisely __

Giving way

The profound basis for this mutual __ reveals that the marriage is a great mystery foreshadowing of the covenant between christ and the church