Feast of the Holy Family
Vol 8 Issue 2 ~ Editor: Rev. Fr. Courtney Edward Krier
January 10, 2015 ~ Our Lady on Saturday
1. Baptism: Means of Salvation
2. Feast of the Holy Family
3. St Hygenius
4. Marriage and Parenthood (2)
5. Articles and notices
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Dear Reader:
Baptism is a Sacrament all Catholics have received. The next series of articles will be covering Baptism in a way that will hopefully provide a better understanding and the necessity of receiving it. I pray it will be beneficial to the readers, not only in knowing and living their faith, but in withholding an ear to those who would cause division by rejecting the fullness of the faith as universally taught through the ages.
Tomorrow is the feast of the Holy Family. May all our families be blessed in their desire of imitating the Holy Family and fulfilling the obligations of parents and children.
As always, enjoy the readings and commentaries provided for your benefit. —The Editor
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Baptism
Means of Salvation
Introduction (a)
On October 11, 1962, a revolutionary Council opened in Rome attended by thousands of Catholic Bishops and their advisors along with Orthodox clergy and Protestant leaders. The Council was to radically change the faith of the Roman Catholic World. A faith that was built on a rock was to be rebuilt on sand. A faith that believed no one could be saved outside the Catholic Church was to teach that it was not necessary to be Catholic to be saved. A faith that taught the central liturgical worship, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, was a re-presentation and actualization of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on Calvary was now to be a celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. The New Testament was no longer the only Covenant with God Father, but was to be joined with the Covenant of Abraham. What were taught as false religions inspired by the Adversary were acknowledged now to be inspired by the “Holy Spirit”, who leads men along different paths. An Ecumenical Council no longer was a General Council that made infallible decisions on faith and morals, but a Council that included all religions who gathered to change the faith so it would be acceptable to everyone.
When the Council closed on December 8, 1965, no one saw the Catholic Church as they once viewed it: A monolith of unchangeable doctrine that didn’t budge no matter what direction the world went. It was now one of the “major religions” that adapted to the weltgeist just as the others in order to survive in the pulp culture. The liturgy truly became pop culture with electric guitars and synthesizers ranging from the hippy subculture to the rock and roll hip-hop in an entertaining, politically-correct and feminized feel-good service that reeked of socializing and mingling within a denuded hall that didn’t infer one was there to pray. The faith became a cult of man worship, following a figure “pope” rather than a set of beliefs. Sin was out and being happy was in. Catholic divorce (“annulment”) soared and the Nuns became Marxist activists while the Friars became Liberation theologians. The Church of Vatican II had no concern about the salvation of souls but its popularity in the world and joined all the trends that would draw accolades. It would sacrifice its members to be slaughtered just as long as the world would extol it as desiring peace. It would denounce Catholic politicians as dictators who insisted on moral principles and would praise politicians as exemplary leaders who rejected Catholic moral principles in the name of equality, fraternity and liberty.
Roman Catholics who had the grace to recognize this apostasy of the faith left their once Catholic parishes that had turned into Protestant meeting spaces—following the example of their ancestors who also had to leave the churches they built during the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. True Catholics gathered around faithful priests and bishops who, while denouncing their brethren for betraying the flock entrusted to them, took the staff in hand and administered the seven sacraments as true shepherds of souls. Scattered, for “while only that he who now holdeth, do hold, until he be taken out of the way” (2 Thess. 2:7) the vicar of Christ had been replaced with a vicar of anti-Christ, Roman Catholics sought to rally behind a leader, but human nature as it is, it was not attainable. The Church found itself factional as in the time of Christ, where there were the Pharisees, Sadducees and Herodians along with the Zealots and Libertines. In the time of St. Paul, while the Church was stilling taking form, he also speaks of the factions: “For it hath been signified unto me, my brethren, of you, by them that are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith: I indeed am of Paul; and I am of Apollo; and I am of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul then crucified for you? or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Cor. 1:11-13). Unfortunately, there were also those who were mercenaries, who entered by the back door, such as the Old Catholics—both as Old Catholics and Catholics who went to them as a means of entering into the ranks of the clergy to avoid proper formation and protocol, who were hirelings and wolfs in sheep’s clothing (cf. Matt. 7:15)—, Feenyites and Right-Wing Radicals. These people seemed sincere in their approach to the Religious and Political turmoil of the aftermath of the Vatican II Revolution (coupled with the 60’s Sexual and Political Revolution) and found Roman Catholics who were struggling to defend the true faith as possible recruits. Despite warnings to Faithful Catholics, pride was able to bring about the fall of many into the snares laid by these deceitful wolves.
It is hoped that faithful Catholics understand the problems of the Old Catholics and avoid them all together. It is also hoped that even though Barabbas was freed, he was not looked upon as the solution to the political domination of the Romans, but an excuse to crucify the Christ. Our Lord did not come to establish an earthly kingdom: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would certainly strive that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now my kingdom is not from hence.” (John 18:36) Right-Wing Radicals will not “Render… to Caesar the things that are Caesar’ s; and to God, the things that are God’ s.” (Matt. 22:21; Mark 12:17; Luke 20:25) “Vengeance belongeth to me, and I will repay.” (Hebr. 10:30)
There is the other wolf that wears sheep’s clothing that is even more insidious because it is able to take error and turn it into something that appears to be true, deceiving even the elect. (cf. Matt. 24:24; Mark 13:22) For this reason I wish to go through the theology of Baptism, its types in the Old Testament, institution, historical development of its ritual, disputes, rites and the Sacramental effects.
Leonard Feeney was right on the mark when he saw the developing theology of Vatican II propagated in Boston College (Jesuit) during the 1940’s with full Episcopal approval. He erred when he allowed himself to throw out the baby with the bath water. His formulation of the err of universal salvation was not accomplished by a rejection of part of the Church’s teaching on Baptism, Justification and Salvation—rather he ended by assisting these Modernists with their being able to ride on the shirt tails of his public condemnation and in the confusion the common Catholic had as to what is the true understanding of the Church regarding Baptism, Justification and Salvation, thereby accepting whatever a straying theologian proposed. If only there had been a confrere to give Leonard Feeney a hand in how to truly expose the errors he so ardently opposed. I am not sure Jesuits know what the virtue of humility is other than a word they could write books on without ever experiencing it.
Already, in at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago there was the World’s Congress of Religions, which hosted religious leaders from all over the world. The result was a seeking of uniting religions, as the leading organizer, a Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda, sought at the congress. The 5,000 assembled delegates were greeted, “Sisters and brothers of America!” Present at this Congress was Cardinal James Gibbons, who followed Vivekananda’s speech with the “Lord’s Prayer”. At that time European Catholics were appalled by such an act and Pope Leo XIII issued the Encyclical, Testem Benevolentiae Nostrae on January 22, 1899, stating:
The underlying principle of these new opinions is that, in order to more easily attract those who differ from her, the Church should shape her teachings more in accord with the spirit of the age and relax some of her ancient severity and make some concessions to new opinions. Many think that these concessions should be made not only in regard to ways of living, but even in regard to doctrines which belong to the deposit of the faith. They contend that it would be opportune, in order to gain those who differ from us, to omit certain points of her teaching which are of lesser importance, and to tone down the meaning which the Church has always attached to them. It does not need many words, beloved son, to prove the falsity of these ideas if the nature and origin of the doctrine which the Church proposes are recalled to mind. The Vatican Council says concerning this point: “For the doctrine of faith which God has revealed has not been proposed, like a philosophical invention to be perfected by human ingenuity, but has been delivered as a divine deposit to the Spouse of Christ to be faithfully kept and infallibly declared. Hence that meaning of the sacred dogmas is perpetually to be retained which our Holy Mother, the Church, has once declared, nor is that meaning ever to be departed from under the pretense or pretext of a deeper comprehension of them.” -Constitutio de Fide Catholica, Chapter iv.
But the seed of false Ecumenism had been planted and American Catholic clergy already participated. Despite the condemnation, it was denied as an act contrary to Catholic faith. The movement continued and again, on January 6, 1928, Pope Pius XI wrote the Encyclical, Mortalium Animos:
And here it seems opportune to expound and to refute a certain false opinion, on which this whole question, as well as that complex movement by which non-Catholics seek to bring about the union of the Christian churches depends. For authors who favor this view are accustomed, times almost without number, to bring forward these words of Christ: “That they all may be one…. And there shall be one fold and one shepherd,” [John xvii, 21; x, 16] with this signification however: that Christ Jesus merely expressed a desire and prayer, which still lacks its fulfillment. For they are of the opinion that the unity of faith and government, which is a note of the one true Church of Christ, has hardly up to the present time existed, and does not to-day exist. They consider that this unity may indeed be desired and that it may even be one day attained through the instrumentality of wills directed to a common end, but that meanwhile it can only be regarded as mere ideal. They add that the Church in itself, or of its nature, is divided into sections; that is to say, that it is made up of several churches or distinct communities, which still remain separate, and although having certain articles of doctrine in common, nevertheless disagree concerning the remainder; that these all enjoy the same rights; and that the Church was one and unique from, at the most, the apostolic age until the first Ecumenical Councils. Controversies therefore, they say, and longstanding differences of opinion which keep asunder till the present day the members of the Christian family, must be entirely put aside, and from the remaining doctrines a common form of faith drawn up and proposed for belief, and in the profession of which all may not only know but feel that they are brothers. The manifold churches or communities, if united in some kind of universal federation, would then be in a position to oppose strongly and with success the progress of irreligion. This, Venerable Brethren, is what is commonly said. There are some, indeed, who recognize and affirm that Protestantism, as they call it, has rejected, with a great lack of consideration, certain articles of faith and some external ceremonies, which are, in fact, pleasing and useful, and which the Roman Church still retains. They soon, however, go on to say that that Church also has erred, and corrupted the original religion by adding and proposing for belief certain doctrines which are not only alien to the Gospel, but even repugnant to it. Among the chief of these they number that which concerns the primacy of jurisdiction, which was granted to Peter and to his successors in the See of Rome. Among them there indeed are some, though few, who grant to the Roman Pontiff a primacy of honor or even a certain jurisdiction or power, but this, however, they consider not to arise from the divine law but from the consent of the faithful. Others again, even go so far as to wish the Pontiff Himself to preside over their motley, so to say, assemblies. But, all the same, although many non-Catholics may be found who loudly preach fraternal communion in Christ Jesus, yet you will find none at all to whom it ever occurs to submit to and obey the Vicar of Jesus Christ either in His capacity as a teacher or as a governor. Meanwhile they affirm that they would willingly treat with the Church of Rome, but on equal terms, that is as equals with an equal: but even if they could so act, it does not seem open to doubt that any pact into which they might enter would not compel them to turn from those opinions which are still the reason why they err and stray from the one fold of Christ.
This being so, it is clear that the Apostolic See cannot on any terms take part in their assemblies, nor is it anyway lawful for Catholics either to support or to work for such enterprises; for if they do so they will be giving countenance to a false Christianity, quite alien to the one Church of Christ. Shall We suffer, what would indeed be iniquitous, the truth, and a truth divinely revealed, to be made a subject for compromise? For here there is question of defending revealed truth. Jesus Christ sent His Apostles into the whole world in order that they might permeate all nations with the Gospel faith, and, lest they should err, He willed beforehand that they should be taught by the Holy Ghost: has then this doctrine of the Apostles completely vanished away, or sometimes been obscured, in the Church, whose ruler and defense is God Himself? If our Redeemer plainly said that His Gospel was to continue not only during the times of the Apostles, but also till future ages, is it possible that the object of faith should in the process of time become so obscure and uncertain, that it would be necessary to-day to tolerate opinions which are even incompatible one with another? If this were true, we should have to confess that the coming of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles, and the perpetual indwelling of the same Spirit in the Church, and the very preaching of Jesus Christ, have several centuries ago, lost all their efficacy and use, to affirm which would be blasphemy. But the Only-begotten Son of God, when He commanded His representatives to teach all nations, obliged all men to give credence to whatever was made known to them by “witnesses preordained by God,” [Acts x,41] and also confirmed His command with this sanction: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be condemned.” [Mark xvi, 16] These two commands of Christ, which must be fulfilled, the one, namely, to teach, and the other to believe, cannot even be understood, unless the Church proposes a complete and easily understood teaching, and is immune when it thus teaches from all danger of erring. In this matter, those also turn aside from the right path, who think that the deposit of truth such laborious trouble, and with such lengthy study and discussion, that a man’s life would hardly suffice to find and take possession of it; as if the most merciful God had spoken through the prophets and His Only-begotten Son merely in order that a few, and those stricken in years, should learn what He had revealed through them, and not that He might inculcate a doctrine of faith and morals, by which man should be guided through the whole course of his moral life.
These pan-Christians who turn their minds to uniting the churches seem, indeed, to pursue the noblest of ideas in promoting charity among all Christians: nevertheless how does it happen that this charity tends to injure faith? Everyone knows that John himself, the Apostle of love, who seems to reveal in his Gospel the secrets of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and who never ceased to impress on the memories of his followers the new commandment “Love one another,” altogether forbade any intercourse with those who professed a mutilated and corrupt version of Christ’s teaching: “If any man come to you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house nor say to him: God speed you.” [2 John 10] For which reason, since charity is based on a complete and sincere faith, the disciples of Christ must be united principally by the bond of one faith. Who then can conceive a Christian Federation, the members of which retain each his own opinions and private judgment, even in matters which concern the object of faith, even though they be repugnant to the opinions of the rest? And in what manner, We ask, can men who follow contrary opinions, belong to one and the same Federation of the faithful? For example, those who affirm, and those who deny that sacred Tradition is a true fount of divine Revelation; those who hold that an ecclesiastical hierarchy, made up of bishops, priests and ministers, has been divinely constituted, and those who assert that it has been brought in little by little in accordance with the conditions of the time; those who adore Christ really present in the Most Holy Eucharist through that marvelous conversion of the bread and wine, which is called transubstantiation, and those who affirm that Christ is present only by faith or by the signification and virtue of the Sacrament; those who in the Eucharist recognize the nature both of a sacrament and of a sacrifice, and those who say that it is nothing more than the memorial or commemoration of the Lord’s Supper; those who believe it to be good and useful to invoke by prayer the Saints reigning with Christ, especially Mary the Mother of God, and to venerate their images, and those who urge that such a veneration is not to be made use of, for it is contrary to the honor due to Jesus Christ, “the one mediator of God and men.” [Cf. I Tim. ii, 15] How so great a variety of opinions can make the way clear to effect the unity of the Church We know not; that unity can only arise from one teaching authority, one law of belief and one faith of Christians. But We do know that from this it is an easy step to the neglect of religion or indifferentism and to modernism, as they call it.
(To be continued)
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Feast of the Holy Family
Benedict Baur, O.S.B.
[As the Church continues the mystery of the Epiphany, the following commentary is placed here as the Epiphany is invariably overshadowed by Christmas. There is a reading on marriage placed later.]
FOR THE FEAST OF EPIPHANY
Sacred gifts
- The three wise men open their treasures and make their offering. The liturgy imitates this example daily in the Offertory of the Mass. The Offertory for the feast of Epiphany refers to the Church, to us: “The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents; the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts; and all kings of the earth shall adore Him; all nations shall serve Him.”
- In the offerings which the faithful formerly brought to the altar in the Offertory procession and which the priest now, in the name of the sacrificing Church, brings to the altar as the bread and wine, we give ourselves as sacrifices to God. These sacrificial gifts are a substitute for those who offer them. Instead of gold, we offer the best and most precious thing we have: ourselves, our heart with its desires and inclinations, our will, our freedom, and our actions. “Behold, I come to do Thy will” (Heb. 10:9). To Him belongs all we have and are. When we offer incense, we acknowledge Him to be our God, our all. Our whole life should be a prayer and a continual elevation of our thoughts and affections to our Lord and God. “Let my prayer be directed as incense in Thy sight” (Ps. 140:2). With our offering of myrrh we renounce, as did the wise men at the crib, the inordinate attachment to flesh and blood; we leave father and mother in order to live for Him. We renounce the inordinate desires of earthly life and willingly share the poverty of the divine King in the manger. We choose a life of penance and resolve to mortify the internal and external man.
At the Consecration of the Mass, our gifts of bread and wine become the living Christ. “Graciously regard, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the gifts of Thy Church, in which gold, frankincense, and myrrh are no longer offered, but He whom those mystic offerings signified is immolated and received, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord” (Secret). Then with the Church we offer this unspotted, holy, and immaculate gift to the Father. It is our gold, frankincense, and myrrh. The gold is the divine person of the incarnate God. The incense is His endless holiness, which alone can pay worthy adoration, homage, praise, and thanksgiving to God. The myrrh is His holy love for God and man which prompted Him to suffer death on the cross. By means of this most perfect offering we give “to God the things that are God’s” (Matt. 22:21). “By Him, and with Him, and in Him, is to Thee, God, the Father Almighty, in the unity of the Holy Ghost all honor and glory,” and to us the forgiveness of sin and the fullness of grace.
- “The kings of Tharsis and the islands shall offer presents; the kings of the Arabians and of Saba shall bring gifts.” How zealous these kings were! How much they have sacrificed in order to make an offering to the Lord! How great and generous was their faith! With what joy they gave the best they had! And when we come to Mass, what do we have to offer? What do we finally give? Have we ever given all that we have: our entire will without restriction? Have we forsaken every selfish wish, every selfish demand, in order to live according to His will and desire? Have we really offered, given all, renounced all, as the Lord demands of us?
Our participation in the sacrificial offering of the Church consists of more than words and prayers. What we do in the Offertory procession of the Mass and in the Consecration is merely a beginning, the first step. We should continue our self-offering, but in a different way. The three kings who offered the gifts in Bethlehem returned home “by a different way.” They became new men; they broke with the old way which they had hitherto taken. The true co-offering of the Mass creates a new spirit a new man, who goes forth and offers every day to the Lord and Savior. He recognizes the Lord in his brothers and sisters and in all with whom he comes in contact. He opens the treasures of his heart and inspires the members of Christ with his love, his talent, and his strength. He gives to those in need and freely opens his hand to share his goods. In the spiritual and corporal works of mercy which he performs, one may discern the extent of his sincerity at the Offertory of the Mass.
PRAYER
Graciously regard, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the gifts of Thy Church, in which gold, frankincense, and myrrh are no longer offered, but He whom those mystic offerings signified is immolated and received, Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord. Amen.
The miraculous star
- For the reception of Communion, the liturgy for the feast of Epiphany places the words of the three wise men on our lips: “We have seen His star in the East and are come with gifts to adore Him.” These words take on a Eucharistic meaning.
- “We have seen His star.” In the star the liturgy recognizes the Holy Eucharist. “We have seen His star” in the celebration of Mass, in the reception of Holy Communion, and in the visits we make to the tabernacle. The altar is our Bethlehem. By the light of faith we have been led here and we have found Him. He is the Star of the East, the Eucharistic sun, from whom all life and blessings proceed. “He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood hath everlasting life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him. As the living Father hath sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me” (John 6:55-58).
Christ is the source of all supernatural life and grace. Daily He enlightens us in the Mass, in Holy Communion, and in our visits to the tabernacle. May the Eucharist be our star. Let us turn our eyes to it often during the day. We should visit the tabernacle frequently in order to study the star and to be enlightened and penetrated by its light. This is the crowning point in the life of the three wise men: they have seen the star. May this good fortune be ours daily. “We have seen His star. . . and are come with gifts to adore Him,” Jesus, our all, in the Holy Eucharist.
We “come with gifts to adore Him.” In the light and strength of the star which has risen for us early in the morning in Mass and Communion, the day will be filled with holy thoughts, holy affections, and good deeds. The love aroused in our heart by the sacraments penetrates all our deeds and bestows a priceless value on all our works. Every morning the Holy Eucharist will enkindle in our hearts a greater and purer love. If we have adopted this attitude, every thought, every deed, every sacrifice we make, becomes a gift which we may offer to the newborn child. With gifts in our hand, in the strength of the Holy Eucharist, we approach the Lord. In the holy Bethlehem of heaven, our homeland, we shall love, adore, and possess Him eternally.
- “We have seen His star.” From the Offertory and from our sacrificial meal we return to our daily occupations. The star which we saw early in the morning follows us everywhere. By recalling to mind our part in the Mass and Holy Communion, we shall be able to renew our strength and courage when our tasks become burdensome.
“We have seen His star in the East and are come with gifts to adore Him.” The star of the Holy Eucharist has also risen over our neighbor; he has partaken of the same sacrificial meal we have. We have shared in offering the same divine victim; we have been enlightened by the same star. Its light has guided and strengthened both of us. We should soon be able to see Christ in each of our fellow men. Then we shall honor our neighbor because we see Christ in him. We shall best serve and worship Christ when we have learned to love our neighbor for His sake. “As long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:4.0). The fruit of our daily sharing in Mass and Holy Communion should be a persevering and efficacious love of the members of Christ’s mystical body.
PRAYER
Grant, we beseech Thee, almighty God, that what we celebrate with solemn office, we may attain by the understanding of a purified mind. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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11: ST HYGINUS, POPE (c. A.D. 142)
IN the Roman Martyrology St Hyginus is described as a martyr, but there is no early evidence of this. We are told in the Liber Pontificalis that he was a Greek by birth, but the further statement that he had been a philosopher is probably due to some confusion with another Hyginus. Eusebius lets us know that his predecessor died during the first year of the Emperor Antoninus Pius, so that it is likely that the pontificate of Hyginus lasted from 138 to 142. From St Irenaeus we learn that at this time two Gnostic heresiarchs, Valentinus and Cerdo, were present in Rome and caused trouble in the Church, but how far the trouble had progressed before Hyginus himself was summoned to his reward is not certain.
(Butler’s Lives of the Saints)
MARRIAGE AND PARENTHOOD
The Catholic Ideal
By the Rev. Thomas J. Gerrard
(1911)
CHAPTER I
INSTITUTION AND PURPOSE
ONE of the most remarkable phenomena of the social life of the new century is the movement among womankind for a readjustment of the relations between man and woman. The movement affects all spheres of life, It makes most noise in the sphere of politics. But as the affairs of the State have their root in the affairs of the family, it is to the family that we must look for the cause of the disturbance. There would seem to be something wrong with many of the current ideas concerning the relationship between husband and wife. The fact indeed is that in many quarters the Catholic ideal of the great Sacrament of matrimony has become obscured. The protective love of the husband toward the wife has been changed into a tyrannical overlordship. The loving acquiescence in that protection on the part of the wife has been construed into a servile obedience. The outrage on both nature and grace has rendered the mutual life irksome beyond endurance, and consequently /7/ ideas have become prevalent which tell both against the sanctity of the marriage state and against the indissolubility of its bond. Let us see then what the Church has to say about this wondrous mystery.
The very institution of marriage has its reason in the weakness and insufficiency of man. God, although supremely happy in the company of His own blessed Trinity, had willed to exercise His love outside Himself. He had willed to produce a created world in which there should be one class of creatures bearing His own likeness.
After separating the night from the day, and the land from the water, after making the fishes of the sea, the fowls of the air, and the cattle of the earth, He made man to rule over the earth. He made man a reasonable being, capable of giving a reasonable service. But even with all the delights of that paradise of pleasure, with all his unimpaired intelligence and power of ordaining things for God’s glory, man by himself was not enough for God’s purpose. There were parts in God’s great design which man by himself could not accomplish. He was wanting in both physical, mental, and moral complements. So God said: “ It is not good for man to be alone: let us make him a help like unto himself.” So God cast Adam /8/ into a deep sleep, took a rib from his side from which He built a woman. And when God brought the woman to the man, then did Adam say: “This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. Wherefore a man shall leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh.” Having been thus made for each other and united to each other, they then received the message of God as to the end for which all these things had been arranged. “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it.”
The formation of Adam and Eve and their union in the matrimonial bond had, however, a very much wider significance than the mere multiplication of human beings and the replenishment of the earth. God, when He created them, had also in His mind His own Incarnation and His Church. The institution of matrimony was to be a kind of prophecy of His Incarnation and a figure of His Church. As Adam was made weak so that Eve might be given to him to be his strength, so the Son of God became weak, emptying Himself of Himself so that He might take upon Himself the form of a servant and, clothed in flesh, might accomplish the strong victory over sin and /9/ death. As Eve was taken from the side of Adam as he slept, and became the mother of all living, so was the Church taken from the side of Christ as He slept upon the Cross, and became for Him His chosen spouse, the Mother of all those to whom He had come to give life.
The state of marriage, therefore, as reflected in the mysteries of the Incarnation and the Church is seen to have the high function not only of procreating human beings to replenish the earth, but also of training them in the higher life of grace and thus preparing them for the still higher life of glory. Christ came into the world solely to save sinners. The end of the Church is merely the salvation of souls. If, therefore, matrimony is a figure of the Incarnation and the Church, then its chief end is the population of heaven with immortal souls.
Seeing, then, that the chief end of matrimony is so high and noble, the means ordained for the accomplishment of that end must be proportionately high and noble. And so we find that nature has provided such means. These may be summed up in the two properties of marriage, its unity and its indissolubility.
And if we would probe further into the mystery and find the common source of these properties of /10/ marriage we discern it in that all-attractive beauty of the state, conjugal love. The mere procreation of children could not possibly be the end of matrimony; for this could be done without the bond, without the unity, without the perpetuity, without the love. Manifestly, then, the chief reason for the institution of matrimony was the welfare of the offspring, not merely the existence of the offspring, but its growth and development, the promotion of all its interests. Therefore it was that God so made man and woman that they should love each other, that they should foster that love and concentrate it on each other by excluding all other love of the same kind, that they should make it so strong and lasting that only death should be able to bring about a breach of the union.
All this points to the fact that the marriage bond is a law of nature. It is a mutual agreement by which a man and a woman give themselves to each other until death, and this chiefly for the sake of the highest interest of the children which shall be born to them.
Its natural perfection, however, in course of time became corrupted. Impurity then, even as now, led to hardness of heart. Consequently Moses allowed divorce. The Pharisees, knowing this, brought it as an objection to Our Lord’s /11/ teaching. Our Lord, however, was able to quote an earlier and more fundamental law. “Have ye not read that He who made man from the beginning, made them male and female? And He said: For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh.” Moses had taken into consideration the hardness of their hearts and for the sake of preventing greater evils had permitted them to put away their wives. “But,” Our Lord reminded them, “from the beginning it was not so.”
In this, as in many other matters, God had a greater design in view. He desired to provide a remedy for all this irregular life by raising the natural state of marriage to a supernatural plane. Forbidding divorce and insisting on the essential unity and indissolubility of the marriage tie, Christ raised it to the dignity of a Sacrament. Thus it became a more perfect figure of the Incarnation and the Church. Through the union of the Godhead and the Manhood, Christ in His human nature was filled with all grace and knowledge compatible with His created nature. Through the union of Christ with the Church, the Church is sanctified as His one perfect and unspotted bride. So likewise through the union of man and woman in the Sacrament of matrimony, there is conferred /12/ on them all the graces needful to enable them to carry out the arduous duties of that state. “Husbands,” says St. Paul, “love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church, and delivered Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life. . . . So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. This is a great Sacrament; but I speak in Christ and in the Church.”
When St. Paul speaks of marriage being a great Sacrament he does not use the word in the strict sense in which we use it now. He means merely that it is a great sign of something sacred, a mystical symbol of the union between Christ and His Church. Nevertheless, on account of the similarity of the marriage bond to the bond between Christ and His Church, we are able to gather that marriage is a Sacrament in the strictest sense of the word. The union between Christ and His Church consists of sanctifying grace. It consists further of a continual flow of all those graces which are needful for attaining the Church’s end, namely, the salvation of all the souls for whom the Church was instituted. If, therefore, the marriage bond is like the bond between Christ and His Church, it must be the means by which graces /13/ sanctifying the marriage state are conferred. A Sacrament of the new law is a sacred sign instituted by Christ to signify and to confer grace. If, therefore, the marriage bond signifies and confers the graces needful for the marriage state, and if instituted by Christ, then it is one of the seven Sacraments of the new law. So it was then that Christ placed His divine seal on the natural contract and with His own lips proclaimed it henceforth to be a bond forged in heaven. “What, therefore, God hath joined together let no man put asunder.”
(To be continued)
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