GENERAL AUDIENCE OF WEDNESDAY, 20 OCTOBER [1982]
On Wednesday morning, 20 October, the Holy Father, in the customary
general audience in St Peter's Square, continued his commentary on a
passage from the Letter to the Ephesians.
1. Last Wednesday we spoke of the integral heritage of the covenant
with God, and of the grace originally united to the divine work of
creation. Marriage was also a part of this integral heritage—as
can be deduced from the Letter to the Ephesians 5:21-33—marriage,
that is, as a primordial sacrament instituted from the beginning and
linked with the sacrament of creation in its globality. The
sacramentality of marriage is not merely a model and figure of
the sacrament of the Church (of Christ and of the Church). It also
constitutes an essential part of the new heritage, that of the
sacrament of redemption, with which the Church is endowed in Christ.
Here it is necessary yet again to refer to Christ's words in Matthew
19:3-9 (cf. also Mk 10:5-9). In replying to the question of the
Pharisees concerning marriage, Christ refers only and exclusively to
its original institution on the part of the Creator at the
beginning. Reflecting on the significance of this reply in the light of
the Letter to the Ephesians, and in particular of Ephesians 5:21-33, we
end up with a relationship—in
a certain sense twofold—of
marriage with the whole sacramental order which, in the new covenant,
emerges from the same sacrament of redemption.
2. Marriage as a primordial sacrament constitutes, on the one hand, the
figure (the likeness, the analogy), according to which there is
constructed the basic main structure of the new economy of salvation and
of the sacramental order. This order draws its origin from the spousal
gracing which the Church received from Christ, together with all the
benefits of redemption (one could say, using the opening words of the
Letter to the Ephesians, "with every spiritual blessing"—1:3).
In this way marriage, as a primordial sacrament, is assumed and inserted
into the integral structure of the new sacramental economy, arising from
redemption in the form, I would say, of a "prototype." It is
assumed and inserted as it were from its very bases. In conversation
with the Pharisees, Christ himself first of all reconfirmed its
existence (Mt 19:3-9). Reflecting deeply on this dimension, one would
have to conclude that in a certain sense all the sacraments of the new
covenant find their prototype in marriage as the primordial sacrament.
This seems to be indicated in the classic passage quoted from the Letter
to the Ephesians, as we shall say again soon.
3. However, the relationship of marriage with the whole sacramental
order, deriving from the endowment of the Church with the benefits of
the redemption, is not limited merely to the dimension of model. In his
conversation with the Pharisees (cf. Mt 19), Christ confirms the
existence of marriage instituted from the beginning by the Creator. Not
only that, he declares it also an integral part of the new
sacramental economy, of the new order of salvific signs which
derives its origin from the sacrament of redemption, just as the
original economy emerged from the sacrament of creation. In fact, Christ
limited himself to the unique sacrament which was marriage instituted in
the state of innocence and of original justice of man, created male and
female "in the image and likeness of God."
4. The new sacramental economy which is constituted on the basis of the
sacrament of redemption, deriving from the spousal gracing of the Church
on the part of Christ, differs from the original economy. Indeed,
it is directed not to the man of justice and original innocence, but to
the man burdened with the heritage of original sin and with the state of
sinfulness (status naturae lapsae). It is directed to the man
of the threefold concupiscence, according to the classic words of 1
John 2:16, to the man in whom "the desires of the flesh are against the
Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh" (Gal 5:17),
according to the Pauline theology (and anthropology), to which we have
devoted much space in our previous reflections.
5. These considerations, following upon a deeper analysis of the
significance of Christ's statement in the Sermon on the Mount concerning
the lustful look as adultery of the heart, prepare for an
understanding of marriage as an integral part of the new sacramental
order. This order has its origin in the sacrament of redemption, that is
to say, in that great mystery which, as the mystery of Christ and of the
Church, determines the sacramentality of the Church itself. These
considerations also prepare for an understanding of marriage as a
sacrament of the new covenant, whose salvific work is organically
linked with the ensemble of that ethos which was defined in the
previous analyses as the ethos of redemption. The Letter to the
Ephesians expresses the same truth in its own way. It speaks of marriage
as a great sacrament in a wide parenetic context, that is, in the
context of exhortations of a moral nature. It concerns precisely the
ethos which should characterize the life of Christians, that is, of
people aware of the election which is realized in Christ and in the
Church.
6. Against this vast background of reflections which emerge from reading
the Letter to the Ephesians (especially 5:21-33), one can and should
eventually touch again the problem of the sacraments of the Church. The
text cited from the Letter to the Ephesians speaks of it in an indirect
and, I would say, secondary way, though sufficient to bring this problem
within the scope of our considerations. However, it is fitting to
clarify here, at least briefly, the sense in which we use the term
"sacrament," which is significant for our considerations.
7. Until now we have used the term "sacrament" (in conformity with the
whole of biblical-patristic tradition)(1) in a sense wider than that
proper to traditional and contemporary theological terminology. By the
word "sacrament" this terminology means the signs instituted by Christ
and administered by the Church, which signify and confer divine grace on
the person who receives the relative sacrament. In this sense each of
the seven sacraments of the Church is characterized by a determinate
liturgical action, made up of words (the form) and the specific
sacramental "matter"—according
to the widespread hylomorphic theory deriving from Thomas Aquinas and
the whole scholastic tradition.
8. In relationship to this rather restricted meaning, we have used in
our considerations a wider and perhaps also more ancient and
fundamental meaning of the term "sacrament."(2) The Letter to the
Ephesians, especially 5:21-33, seems in a particular way to authorize us
to do so. Here sacrament signifies the very mystery of God, which is
hidden from eternity; however, not in an eternal concealment, but above
all, in its very revelation and actuation (furthermore, in its
revelation through its actuation). In this sense we spoke also of the
sacrament of creation and of the sacrament of redemption. On the basis
of the sacrament of creation, one must understand the original
sacramentality of marriage (the primordial sacrament). Following upon
this, on the basis of the sacrament of redemption one can understand the
sacramentality of the Church, or rather the sacramentality of the union
of Christ with the Church. The author of the Letter to the Ephesians
presents this under the simile of marriage, of the conjugal union of
husband and wife. A careful analysis of the text shows that in this
case, it is not merely a comparison in a metaphorical sense, but of a
real renewal (or of a "re-creation," that is, of a new creation)
of that which constituted the salvific content (in a certain
sense, the "salvific substance") of the primordial sacrament. This
observation has an essential significance both for the clarification of
the sacramentality of the Church (the very significant words of the
first chapter of Lumen Gentium refer to this), and also for the
understanding of the sacramentality of marriage, understood precisely as
one of the sacraments of the Church.
NOTES
1) Cf. Leo XIII, Acta, Vol. II, 1881, p. 22.
2) In this regard, cf. discourse at the general audience of September
8, 1982, note 1 (English edition, 13 September, p.2, 1982, p. 2).
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