The Seven Sacraments Series: Marriage

Last year I had the privilege and joy of being married to my college sweetheart. It was a beautiful ceremony in the campus chapel and officiated by the priest who oversaw my conversion and introduced me to my husband.

Many times, when we think of marriage, we think of weddings and dresses and cakes and rings. Those who have been married may think of all the planning that goes into the ceremony and reception. Families may think of saying goodbye to a child or welcoming a new child into the family.

But marriage is not just the physical elements of the union. In the Church, it is more than that. Scott P. Richert says:

[...M]arriage is more than a natural institution; it was elevated by Christ Himself, in His participation in the wedding at Cana (John 2:1-11), to be one of the seven sacraments. A marriage between two Christians, therefore, has a supernatural element as well as a natural one. While few Christians outside of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches regard marriage as a sacrament, the Catholic Church insists that marriage between any two baptized Christians, as long as it is entered into with the intention to contract a true marriage, is a sacrament.

Just as any sacrament in the Church, there are changes that occur for the faithful that bring us closer to the Church and stronger in our relationships with the Lord. About the effect of marriage, Richert says:

The effect of the sacrament is an increase in sanctifying grace for the spouses, a participation in the divine life of God Himself...This sanctifying grace helps each spouse to help the other advance in holiness, and it helps them together to cooperate in God's plan of redemption by raising up children in the Faith. In this way, sacramental marriage is more than a union of a man and a woman; it is, in fact, a type and symbol of the divine union between Christ, the Bridegroom, and His Church, the Bride. As married Christians, open to the creation of new life and committed to our mutual salvation, we participate not only in God's creative act but in the redemptive act of Christ.

While the immediacy of marriage is the union of two people who love each other, marriage goes beyond those two people, and beyond the love and support they receive from each other.

Because the sacrament of marriage involves more than one person, and it's a sacrament that changes the lives of those two people (as well as their children), it should not be taken lightly. In premarital counseling, for example, you are asked to think deeply about what you're doing to make sure you're both entering into the sacrament with willing, open hearts.

Marriage is a beautiful sacrament, and one that is unlike any of the others. Marriage brings two people together in love and faith, and they are bound to each other for the rest of their lives. No matter what happens to them, they can turn to each other for love and support. Even if family and friends turn their backs, spouses are there to stand strong.

What other sacrament can boast mutual love and support from another person for life?