Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00 Okay. Let's start with a quick review. Last week we saw the key idea of marriage as a recreation groom as a new Adam, the bride as a new Eve who by conferring the SAC when a marriage on one another are placed in a state of great holiness and then they're given that same incredible blessing that God gave to our first parents to be fruitful, multiply. We saw the mission of the married couple is to go out from the sanctuary and bring that state of holiness out into the sanctuary of the home. We saw a disorder in human relationships restored by the correct relationship between man and wife. The role of the man is the head of the family and the role of the wife as the heart of the family. We saw the centrality of Christ and his cross. This recreation takes place in the shadow of the cross.
Speaker 0 00:49 Okay? We also want to keep in mind all the time that God made created marriage, he makes the rules because it's a creature to essential nature can't be changed and I said it over and over again. You might wonder why and all that rest for a minute. It's because what we're talking about here is questions of the face. Marriage is a Holy state. It's a sacrament, so there are things because of our fallen state, because of original actual sin that are either hard to do or hard to accept. That's why it's a segment where the churches here, not only to tell us what to do, but to give us the grace to be able to do it. It's a moral miracle, a moral miracle the church teaches and a moral miracle. Just to tell you what I mean by that, a physical miracle is raising people from the dead.
Speaker 0 01:31 A miracle mirror more miracle is higher than that. It is a moral miracle for a man and a woman to be faithful to each other. Marriage for life without the sacrament of marriage, and God requires you to be faithful in your thoughts and your words and your deeds. That's why the SAC, when it's here so you can be faithful. It's a means of growing and great holiness in spite of our fallen condition and the idiocy of the society we live in. Okay. So some of the things are going to be hard to take sometimes. That's okay. You just pray for the grace. All right. I'm not gonna apologize for anything. I say my delivery, I can apologize for that cause I'm in sales. But uh, but the management end of it, you gotta take any issues you have. It goes to God. You know, I may not, I may not deliver it very well, but God, it comes from God.
Speaker 0 02:15 I don't make this stuff up. Okay? So I just want to say that. Okay. As a wise, Redemptorist priest wrote decades ago, quote, the most important feature, the most important feature of the contract of marriage is the fact that the terms are not, are laid down not by the free will of human beings, but by this authority and command of God. Why is this? Why cannot an individual decide for himself or herself to what he will bind himself in marriage? Simply because marriage has a necessary purpose to fulfill in human society under the plan of God that cannot be fulfilled except under certain unchangeable terms and rules. God has established the purpose once and for all and God has determined the rules by which the purpose is to be obtained. No human being is free to change either the purpose or the essential rules. Close quote, father Donald Miller, marriage has an essential purpose to fulfill in human society under the planet.
Speaker 0 03:29 God, they cannot be fulfilled except under certain unchangeable terms and rules. God has established a purpose once and for all. God is determined the rules by which the purpose is to be attained. No human being is free to change either the purpose or the essential rules. Okay, so what exactly is the necessary purpose of marriage? God created marriage is a lifelong union of a man and a woman for two specific purposes. There's a primary purpose and attached to that as a secondary purpose. The primary purpose of marriage is procreation and education of children. That is a primary purpose of marriage, the procreation and education of children. The secondary purpose of marriage are two aspects of the secondary purpose, mutual help, and a remedy. Two aspects of secondary purpose are mutual help and remedy. So let's take a look at both of those mutual help and comfort God and tens than a man and wife help each other, not just in household chores and caring for and train the children, but especially by mutual help and care for each other.
Speaker 0 04:45 That's mutual help remedy. Since the fall. Marriage is also a remedy for concupiscence. That means that one of the purposes of marriage is legitimate quieting of the passions, but that has to be understood in the correct way. It means a lot more than simply calming them down the passions. Why? Because the legitimate Quine of passions which God has blessed and placed within the boundaries of marriage, the legitimate quiet and of passions is not simply concerned with the passions. It's also meant to express both love and the union of the two personalities of the man and wife. The legitimate quiet and passions within the boundaries of marriage is not simply concerned with passion. It's also meant to express both the love and the union of the two personalities as a man and wife, so God created marriage with the two specific purposes. The primary purpose of marriage is the procreation and education of children, and the secondary purpose of marriage is a mutual help and comfort of the spouses and the remedy for concupiscence.
Speaker 0 05:52 Okay, now we've considered the purpose of marriage. Let's turn to the inflexible rules. We'll start with the marriage contract. Father Miller commenting on the marriage contract quote, reason by itself will never be able to overcome the emotional objections and obstacles to carry out God's will that are made power by the effects of original sin. Here's what I was saying earlier, said again, I'll read that again. This is an important lie. Reasoned by itself will never be able to overcome the emotional objections and obstacles to carry out God's will that are made powerful by the effects of original sin. For that reason. The married and the about to be married must look upon their marriage contract as part of their commitment and surrender to Christ as their God, their Redeemer, their only hope of salvation and happiness. They must be mindful that to baptism, they were reborn as children of God.
Speaker 0 06:58 They must look upon, carry out Christ's will in marriage, not merely as observing external legal formulas, but as the joyous fulfillment of a commitment they have made to Christ for time, for eternity. They must accept any hardships that arise from the contract of marriage as a small price to pay for the new life, the divine life, the everlasting life to which they have been elevated by Jesus Christ. Close quote, the married must look upon their marriage contract as a part of their commitment and surrender to Christ, part of the commitment and surrender to Christ. They must accept any hardships that arise from his contract of marriage as a small price to pay for that supernatural life, the eternal life to which they've been elevated by Christ our Lord. That's the shadow of the cross that we talked about last week. Okay. We're speaking of the marriage contract.
Speaker 0 08:05 There's actually four major areas that are covered by the marriage contract. There are physical terms to the marriage contract, spiritual terms, temporal terms, educational terms. In indissoluble terms today, we'll just look at the physical terms. We'll summarize the physical terms, the marriage contract. It's easy to see just by considering the traditional description of the marriage contract. Read any old book on marriage, annual Catholic book on marriage. You'll get this, a man and a woman give and accept an exclusive and perpetual right for acts which are of themselves suitable for the generation of children. That's a marriage contract. A man and a woman. Give and accept an exclusive and perpetual right for acts which are of themselves suitable for the generation of children. That's the marriage contract. Okay. If it's properly made, validly made contract is validly made this contract results in the relationship known as marriage.
Speaker 0 09:17 The man and the woman make the contract. God makes the relationship, okay? Both the man and the woman agree to the contract. That's why weddings work the way they do. They come up here, brides brought up groom's waiting. They stand there. You have two witnesses, one on either side of the contract. We usually call them the best man and the maid of honor. The priest is there on behalf of the church with respect to this aspect. The job of the priest is to make sure that the contract is properly entered into. That's what I'm doing here. I don't confect the sacrament. The man and the woman confect the sacrament themselves, they're the ministers of the sacrament. The priest isn't, the priest is witnessing on behalf of the church. We're making sure everything's done validly. He doesn't confect the second. So what happens in poetic terms, the precess of groom, do you freely agree to this contract?
Speaker 0 10:08 Groom says I do, but it's a contract. There's two parties on the deals, so then he turns to the bride poetic terms as sobriety. Do you agree to this contract freely? I do. What are they saying? I do to, they're saying I do to marital rights, marital rights, which means that they give and accept rights to acts which are of themselves suitable for the generation of children. In other words, they not only just been given God's permission, but his actual blessing to use the great creative power. They may use this great creative power on the condition that the acts are of themselves suitable for the generation of children. That gives the limits right there on the condition that the rights are exclusive. What means that each partner yields these rights exclusively to the other partner that shows this unity of the relationship and on the condition that each partner yields easy rights perpetually, which shows the indissolubility of the relationship.
Speaker 0 11:07 Okay, quick review. We asked what's the marriage contract we saw? Merged contract is a man and a woman given except an exclusive and perpetual ride for acts which are of themselves suitable for the generation of children. That's the marriage contract. We've already seen that if it's validly made the contract made between a man and woman results in the relationship made by God, that relationship is known as marriage. Quick review. It's important to note that if a couple did not make a valid contract, just like any contract, if it isn't validly made the contract, it's no invoice. If they didn't make a valid contract, then the relationship didn't come into being. In other words, they weren't actually married. We already saw this when we saw that. If a Catholic guy and his girlfriend get some wild idea and go down to the local justice of the peace or the first church of what's happening now and go up there and stand up in front of everybody and exchange vows, it's not valid.
Speaker 0 12:06 Nothing happens. They come in there as boyfriend and girlfriend and they go right back out as boyfriend and girlfriend. Okay? We've already seen it by order of the council of Trent. Again, I don't make this stuff up by order of the council of Trent when at least one of the spouses is a Catholic. In order to be valid, in order to become a marriage, in order to make the contract, well, one of the spouses is Catholic and we're going to be valid. The marriage must be contracted in the presence of two witnesses and also either by the local Bishop or the parish priest or priest or deacon with delegation from local Bishop for the parish priest. Remember also the Bishop has the power in individual cases to release a particular couple from the requirement of having a Catholic priest or deacon witness the marriage. I'll make apparent that a core Mark in a time, like if you end up, we have a great natural disaster, something you find yourself, I don't know, trapped in Mongolia and the pre-start happening by for awhile, you can actually contract the marriage then, uh, in front of two witnesses and then later on you get it blessed by the priest.
Speaker 0 13:12 That's how in Nagasaki, for 250 years, the people got married. You can baptize and get married without a priest. Those are the two sacraments. So you can do it if we get in a real disaster and there's no priest, but it's not like a priest isn't going to be here this weekend. This is, you know, it's not something like that where we said, okay, anyway, but anyway, so we've all seen all these legal requirements when we considered the legal requirements, but established by the church to Valley contract marriage, these particular legal forms known as the canonical form of marriage. It's also possible to involve the contract of marriage in another way. For example, a marriage would not be a marriage. It would be invalid if the couple contracted for some other kind of relationship than the one established by God. See, they're going to say, well, we'll enter in this agreement, but we're going to do it for three years and then we'll reevaluate.
Speaker 0 13:59 Three years. Can't do it. That's on your terms. It's not God. It's till death. Do us part. If it's three years, that's invalid right there, or they decide that they're not open to acts, which are themselves suitable for generation children. Okay. They might call that marriage, but it's not. Marriage is what it is. God created is what it is. So marriage contract is validly made and if it, if it's marriage contract is value made between a man and a woman at that very instant relationship known as marriage is created by God. If it's not validly made, there's nothing going on there. Okay. Anyway, now having said all that, let's briefly consider the marital duty or the marital debt. As we've seen, God created marriage with two specific purposes. The primary purpose is procreation, education, children. Secondly, purpose is mutual help and comfort. The spouses and the remedy for concupiscence acts between the spouses are good to the degree they conform to these two purposes of marriage. The general principle is everything in conformity with these two purposes. The primary and secondary end of marriage is good and permissible. Anything opposed to them is evil and forbidden. Say that again. Everything conformity with the primary and secondary ends of marriage is good and permissible. Anything opposed to them is evil and forbidden.
Speaker 0 15:23 They have questions. That's why we have confessional form as we also seen by entering in a marriage each spouse has received.
Speaker 1 15:32 Right? Right. Okay.
Speaker 0 15:36 These rights come from God, not from the will of either spouse. They come from God. That means that the other spouse has a corresponding duty before God to accept a reasonable request. That's one of the consequences of saying I do. It's a serious duty owed injustice to the other spouse. Remember, this is not simply a right to the quieting of passions, but to write to the union of the personalities and expression of love, which means that the marriage debt must be paid generously or it's not being paid at all. Furthermore, to refuse a reasonable request to pay the debt without a very serious reason is a moral sin against justice since it's a violation of the rights of other spouse and it's also mortal sin against charity because frustrating one's closest neighbor can place that spouse and potentially serious danger of falling from concupiscence refusal without a very serious reason is a mortal sin against justice and a mortal sin against charity.
Speaker 0 16:38 Serious reasons from honoring the debt, the debt must be refused if there's insufficient privacy and or when one partner insists on cooperation and sinful actions such as, for example, contraception, it may be refused, maybe refused for the following reasons. Number one, when the person requesting is committed adultery, if it has not yet been forgiven by the other partner. Number two, when the one request is not in the right mind. For example, drunk number three where there is a real danger of causing miscarriage. Number four where there's a grave danger of injuring the other spouse, perhaps with the disease. Number five for up to six weeks after birth. Other questions should be referred to the confessional. This is serious duty, so just run through that real quick. Again, my spear fused in the case of insufficient privacy or when one partner's insisting on cooperation with sinful actions that contraception, it may be refused when one partner w the one requesting has committed adultery that hasn't been forgiven yet, when the one request is not in the right mind, when there's a real of miscarriage where there's grave danger of injury, the other spots for up to six weeks after birth.
Speaker 0 17:54 Again, questions should be referred to the confessional. Make sure you're referring to a priest that knows what they're talking about. Okay, let's review. Today. We've taken a brief look at marriage. We've seen that marriage is created by God. He makes the rules, which means that no one, and in this case that means no one. Don means no one changes the rules. That means not, not the couple needs. Not the priest means not the Bishop, not even the Holy father. No one has more. There's no one with more power in the universe than the Holy father and he doesn't have the power. No one means no one changes the rules. No one can change the nature of marriage or its rules. God created marriage with two specific purposes. The primary purpose is a procreation and education of children. The secondary purposes of mutual help for spouses and the remedy for concupiscence.
Speaker 0 18:45 We've seen that those two purposes, the primary and secondary are legitimate, which means that acts between the spouses are good to the degree they conform to those two purposes of marriage. We've seen the general purpose here is everything in conformity with these two purposes. The primary and secondary purpose is good and permissible. Anything opposed to them is evil and forbidden. We've seen the marriage contract has physical terms, spiritual terms, educational terms in dissoluble terms and temporal terms. Today we summarize a physical terms. The marriage contract we saw the marriage contract meant that a man and a woman give an accept and exclusive and perpetual right for acts which are themselves as suitable for the generation of children. We've seen that God has given each spouse rights, which means other spouse has a corresponding duty before God to accept reasonable request. We've seen a serious duty or injustice.
Speaker 0 19:42 Other spouse must be paid generously or it's not being paid at all. We've seen that to refuse the death without a very serious reason is a mortal sin against justice and a mortal sin against charity. We've seen the debt must be refused if there's insufficient privacy or the one or one of them wants to cooperate. Sinful actions such as contraception and at Bay me refused for reasons such as when one request is committed adultery that's not yet been forgiven when the one requesting is not in the right mind when the one, there's a real danger of causing miscarriage where there's a grave danger of injuring the other spouse for up to six weeks after birth and we seen that. Other questions should be referred to confessional. Let's quote with some comments from the gradient cyclical on Christian marriage by Pope Pius the 11th the quote, marriage laws of marriage cannot be subject to any human decrees or to any contrary agreement even of the spouses themselves.
Speaker 0 20:45 The nature of matrimony is independent of the freewill of man. So to have one one has once contracted matrimony is there by subject to it's divinely made laws and its essential properties from God comes the very institution of marriage. The purposes for which it was instituted, the laws that govern it, the blessings that flow from it. Well man, through generous surrender of his own person may to another for the whole span of life becomes with the help and cooperation of God. The author of each particular marriage with the duties and blessings and acts there too from divine institution. Close quote, the vicar of Christ.
