Defense of Sacrament of Marriage ... First there are a few terms I want to define. Baltimore Catechism anyone?

136. Q. What is a Sacrament?
A. A Sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.

105. Q. What is sanctifying grace? -- AKA DIVINE GRACE
A. Sanctifying grace is that grace which makes the soul holy and pleasing to God.

110. Q. What is actual grace?
A. Actual grace is that help of God which enlightens our mind and moves our will to shun evil and do good.

Sacraments give or increase sanctifying grace ...

That marriage is a sacrament is raised to the level of a dogma of the faith by the Council of Trent - Canon I, Sess. XXIV (24) states "If any one shall say that matrimony is not truly and properly one of the Seven Sacraments of the Evangelical Law, instituted by Christ our Lord, but was invented in the Church by men, and does not confer grace, let him be anathema."

This was in response to the reformers

Calvin in his "Institutions", IV (4), xix (19), 34, says:

"Lastly, there is matrimony, which all admit was instituted by God, though no one before the time of Gregory regarded it as a sacrament. What man in his sober senses could so regard it? God's ordinance is good and holy; so also are agriculture, architecture, shoemaking, hair-cutting legitimate ordinances of God, but they are not sacraments".

And Luther speaks in terms equally vigorous.

"No one indeed can deny that marriage is an external worldly thing, like clothes and food, house and home, subject to worldly authority, as shown by so many imperial laws governing it." -- "Von den Ehesachen" (p. 1)

"Not only is the sacramental character of matrimony without foundation in Scripture; but the very traditions, which claim such sacredness for it, are a mere jest"; the original edition of "De captivitate Babylonica"

"Marriage may therefore be a figure of Christ and the Church; it is, however, no Divinely instituted sacrament, but the invention of men in the Church, arising from ignorance of the subject." -- the original edition of "De captivitate Babylonica"

Proof from Scripture

The classical scriptural text is from St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians where Christ declares that the relation between husband and wife should be of that between Christ and the Church.

I will read Ephesians 5:31-32 in the Douay-Rheims version to demonstrate

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh. This is a great sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the church.

Still, this cannot be used as a definitive defense because the later, more technical meaning of the word did not come into play until centuries after this verse was penned. A more modern translation of the verse (NAB used by the USCCB)

For this reason a man shall leave (his) father and (his) mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.

Still we call sacraments "Divine mysteries" and from the emphasis we can infer that the importance of marriage is not to be considered lightly. Ludwig Ott in his Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma explains it as such.

"As the unification of Christ with the Church is a rich source of grace for the members of the Church, so marriage if it is to be a perfect image of the grace-conferring attachment of Christ with the Church, must not be an empty symbol, as it had been in the pre-Christian era but an efficacious (producing the result - i.e. real) sign of grace." -

or as the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia states:

"There would be no reason, therefore, why the Apostle should refer with such emphasis to Christian marriage as so great a sacrament, if the greatness of Christian marriage did not lie in the fact, that it is not a mere sign, but an efficacious sign of the life of grace. In fact, it would be entirely out of keeping with the economy of the New Testament if we possessed a sign of grace and salvation instituted by God which was only an empty sign, and not an efficacious (producing the result - i.e. real) one."

Now why would it be entirely out of keeping with the economy of the New Testament to possess a sign that was empty? As Jesus said in Matt 5:17 "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill." The Catholic faith is a sacramental faith, a point I will delve into momentarily, and our understanding of marriage draws very much from that fact. We as Catholics have an expectation that all types of grace present in the Old Testament, especially covenants, were fulfilled in the New Covenant as greater and more perfect. For example, baptism is "the new circumcision" which allows ALL to enter the New Covenant by the washing clean of our sins.

Col 2:11-12 In him 5 you were also circumcised with a circumcision not administered by hand, by stripping off the carnal body, with the circumcision of Christ. You were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

As as the bread offered to the Israelites in the desert sustained them physically, the "Bread of Life", that is Jesus Christ present in the Eucharist will allow us "to live forever".

John 6:49-51 "Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world."

That Christ dignified marriage by returning it to the glory indicated in the first books of Sacred Scripture further indicates this perfection of marriage belongs to that of a sacrament.

Matt 19:4-12 Some Pharisees approached him, and tested him, 4 saying, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?" He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate." They said to him, "Then why did Moses command that the man give the woman a bill of divorce and dismiss (her)?" He said to them, "Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. I say to you, 7 whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery."

But you don't have to just take my word for it. To further underscore the doctrine that marriage is a sacrament, I would like to expound on a brief proof from Tradition, or as I like to say, from history -- Lets ask a few of the early church fathers.

The biggest key in demonstrating early acceptance of the sacramental nature of marriage is demonstrating its ability to confer Divine grace. The following elements belong to a sacrament:

• it must be a sacred religious rite instituted by Christ; (see Ignatius of Antoch, Tertullian)
• this rite must be a sign of interior sanctification; (see Eph 5)
• it must confer this interior sanctification or Divine grace; (Tertullian, Augustine)
• this effect of Divine grace must be produced, not only in conjunction with the respective religious act, but through it (it must continue). (Tertullian, Augustine)

Hence, whoever attributes these elements to Christian marriage, thereby declares it a true sacrament in the strict sense of the word.

Point one:
* it must be a sacred religious rite instituted by Christ;

From the beginning the early fathers regarded marriage as a religious affair

St. Ignatius of Antioch (107 AD) "Letter to Polycarp 5" - "But it becomes both men and women who marry, to form their union with the approval of the bishop, that their marriage may be according to God, and not after their own lust. Let all things be done to the honour of God."

Point two:
* this rite must be a sign of interior sanctification; -- back to Ephesians 5 where Paul spells out the image of Christ and the Church with respect to the husband and the wife.

Point three/four:
* it must confer this interior sanctification or Divine grace; (Tertullian, Augustine)
* this effect of Divine grace must be produced, not only in conjunction with the respective religious act, but through it (it must continue)

As early as the second century we have the valuable testimony of Tertullian,when discussing a mixed marriage between Gentile (secular) matrimony Christian stating that matrimony enjoys "the partial sanction of divine grace"

If these things may happen to those women also who, having attained the faith while in (the state of) Gentile matrimony, continue in that state, still they are excused, as having been "apprehended by God" in these very circumstances; and they are bidden to persevere in their married state, and are sanctified, and have hope of "making a gain" held out to them. "If, then, a marriage of this kind (contracted before conversion) stands ratified before God, why should not (one contracted after conversion) too go prosperously forward, so as not to be thus harassed by pressures, and straits, and hindrances, and defilements, having already (as it has) the partial sanction of divine grace?" "Ad Uxorem", II, vii

But if Divine grace and its protection are, as Tertullian asserts, given with marriage, we have therein the distinctive moment which constitutes a religious action (already known for other reasons as a sign of Divine grace) an efficacious sign of grace, that is, a true Sacrament of the New Dispensation. It is only on this hypothesis that we can rightly understand another passage from the same work of

"How can we describe the happiness of those marriages which the Church ratifies, the sacrifice strengthens, the blessing seals, the angels publish, the Heavenly Father propitiously (graciously) beholds?" "Ad Uxorem" II, ix, in P.L., I, 1302

Again, as Pope Benedict stated, "....we have a positive idea to offer, that man and woman are made for each other, that the scale of sexuality, eros, agape, indicates the level of love and it's in this way that marriage develops, first of all, as a joyful and blessing-filled encounter between a man and a woman, and then the family, that guarantees continuity among generations and through which generations are reconciled to each other and even cultures can meet. ...."

Through here we have discussed testimony from the first two centuries. In the 4th century St. Augustine places marriage, which he names a sacrament, on the same level with Baptism and Holy Orders. Thus, as Baptism and Holy Orders are sacraments in the strict sense and are recognized as such by the Holy Doctor, he also considers the marriage of Christians a sacrament in the full and strict sense of the word. As an image of the bond between Christ and the Church is employed, and that we know that this unification of Christ and His Church is indissoluble we can further infer that marriage retains the same indissolubility.

"Among all people and all men the good that is secured by marriage consists in the offspring and in the chastity of married fidelity; but, in the case of God's people [the Christians], it consists moreover in the holiness of the sacrament, by reason of which it is forbidden, even after a separation has taken place, to marry another as long as the first partner lives . . . just as priests are ordained to draw together a Christian community, and even though no such community be formed, the Sacrament of Orders still abides in those ordained, or just as the Sacrament of the Lord, once it is conferred, abides even in one who is dismissed from his office on account of guilt, although in such a one it abides unto judgment." De bono conjugii - chap. xxiv in P.L., XL, 394

"Undoubtedly it belongs to the essence of this sacrament that, when man and wife are once united by marriage, this bond remains indissoluble throughout their lives. As long as both live, there remains a something attached to the marriage, which neither mutual separation nor union with a third can remove; in such cases, indeed, it remains for the aggravation of the guilt of their crime, not for the strengthening of the union. Just as the soul of an apostate, which was once similarly wedded unto Christ and now separates itself from Him, does not, in spite of its loss of faith, lose the Sacrament of Faith, which it has received in the waters of regeneration." De nuptiis et concupiscentia - (I, x, in P.L., XLIV, 420)

Pope Innocent I in a letter dated Jan 27, 417 AD declares a second marriage during the lifetime of the first partner invalid, and adds:

"Supported by the Catholic Faith, we declare that the true marriage is that which is originally founded on Divine grace." -- Letter to Probus (Ep. ix, in P.L., XX, 602)

So we see here, clear testimony from the fathers prior to the 4th century that marriage was, in kernel, regarded as a sacrament.

Beyond that we have greater testimony in the liturgical books of the churches both in communion with Rome and those separated from the earliest times:

In all these rituals and liturgical collections, marriage, contracted before the priest during the celebration of Mass, is accompanied by ceremonies and prayers similar to those used in connection with the other sacraments; in fact several of these rituals expressly call marriage a sacrament, and, because it is a "sacrament of the living", require contrition for sin and the reception of the Sacrament of Penance before marriage is contracted (cf. Martène, "De antiquis ecclesiæ ritibus", I, ix). But the venerable age, in fact the apostolicity, of the ecclesiastical tradition concerning marriage is still more clearly revealed by the circumstance that the rituals or liturgical books of the Oriental Churches and sects, even of those that separated from the Catholic Church in the first centuries, treat the contracting of marriage as a sacrament, and surround it with significant and impressive ceremonies and prayers. The Nestorians, Monophysites, Copts, Jacobites etc., all agree in this point (cf. J. S. Assemani, "Bibliotheca orientalis", III, i, 356; ii, 319 sqq.; Schelstrate, "Acta oriental. eccl.", I, 150 sqq.; Denzinger, "Ritus orientalium", I, 150 sqq.; II, 364 sqq.). The numerous prayers which are used throughout the ceremony refer to a special grace which is to be granted to the newly-married persons, and occasional commentaries show that this grace was regarded as sacramental. Thus, the Nestorian patriarch, Timotheus II, in his work "De septem causis sacramentorum" mentioned in Assemani (III, i, 579), deals with marriage among the other sacraments, and enumerates several religious ceremonies without which marriage is invalid. Evidently, therefore, he includes marriage among the sacraments, and considers the grace resulting from it a sacramental grace.

The doctrine that marriage is a sacrament of the New Law has never been a matter of dispute between the Roman Catholic and any of the Oriental Churches separated from it -- a convincing proof that this doctrine has always been part of ecclesiastical tradition and is derived from the Apostles.

pulled from a talk I gave on marriage some months ago which borrows heavily from Catholic Encyclopedia and Ludwig Ott's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma