C
CatholicXian
Guest
I know there are probably more than a few eyes bugging out of their sockets at the mention of chaste and wedlock side by side. However, chastity and marriage are not opposed. Marriage is a great dignity and sacrament of divine institution. Marriage is not a free reign on lust. Rather, marriage is a union of persons, both physically and spiritually in conjugal love and sustained by an indissoluable bond through grace. Thus, marriage is not a contractual agreement, but by the free consent of the will, marriage is an exchange of persons (and this is most intimately lived out in conjugal love).
Love is the innate vocation (call) of every human being. And because man is created in the image and likeness of God, and God created them male and female (man and woman), "their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man" (CCC 1604) and so marriage is meant to be an image of God's love-- that is, in the Trinity, the Father is eternally giving Himself to the Son in love, and the Son mutually gives Himself to the Father in love; and that love is so real it is the person of the Holy Spirit. So too, in marriage, in the fullness of self-giving (intercourse) the love between a husband and a wife has the potential to come to be in the form of a child. (This does not imply that the Trinity is sexual in any way, that is why marriage is merely an image of the love of God... marriage is only analogous to the love of God). This image also relates to not merely to the fruitfulness of the action, but also to the marriage bond itself--it's permanence and faithfulness reflect the love of God and the relationship between Christ and the Church.
It's such a sad state of affairs to realize that much of the world has lost this view of marriage and sees marriage as only a mere human institution, rather than a divine one intended from the very beginning (in Genesis)--in the creation of humanity as man and woman.
Love is the innate vocation (call) of every human being. And because man is created in the image and likeness of God, and God created them male and female (man and woman), "their mutual love becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man" (CCC 1604) and so marriage is meant to be an image of God's love-- that is, in the Trinity, the Father is eternally giving Himself to the Son in love, and the Son mutually gives Himself to the Father in love; and that love is so real it is the person of the Holy Spirit. So too, in marriage, in the fullness of self-giving (intercourse) the love between a husband and a wife has the potential to come to be in the form of a child. (This does not imply that the Trinity is sexual in any way, that is why marriage is merely an image of the love of God... marriage is only analogous to the love of God). This image also relates to not merely to the fruitfulness of the action, but also to the marriage bond itself--it's permanence and faithfulness reflect the love of God and the relationship between Christ and the Church.
It's such a sad state of affairs to realize that much of the world has lost this view of marriage and sees marriage as only a mere human institution, rather than a divine one intended from the very beginning (in Genesis)--in the creation of humanity as man and woman.