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GENERAL AUDIENCE OF WEDNESDAY, 24 NOVEMBER [1982]
During the general audience of Wednesday, 24 November, which took
place in the Paul VI Hall, Pope John Paul delivered the following
discourse.
1. We have analyzed the Letter to the Ephesians, especially the passage
of 5:21-33, from the point of view of the sacramentality of marriage.
Now we shall examine the same text in the perspective of the words of
the Gospel.
Christ's words to the Pharisees (cf. Mt 19) refer to marriage as a
sacrament, that is, to the primordial revelation of God's salvific will
and deed at the beginning, in the very mystery of creation. In virtue of
that salvific will and deed of God, man and woman, joining together in
such a way as to become "one flesh" (Gn 2:24), were at the same time
destined to be united "in truth and love" as children of God (cf.
Gaudium et Spes 24), adopted children in the only-begotten Son,
beloved from all eternity. The words of Christ are directed to this
unity and toward this communion of persons, in the likeness of the union
of the divine persons (cf. Gaudium et Spes 24). His words refer
to marriage as the primordial sacrament and at the same time confirm
that sacrament on the basis of the mystery of redemption. In fact, the
original "unity in the body" of man and woman does not cease to mold the
history of man on earth, even though it has lost the clarity of the
sacrament, of the sign of salvation, which it possessed at the
beginning.
2. If Christ, in the presence of those with whom he was conversing, in
the Gospels of Matthew and Mark (cf. Mt 19; Mk 10), confirms marriage as
a sacrament instituted by the Creator at the beginningif
in conformity with this he insisted on its indissolubilityhe
thereby opens marriage to the salvific action of God, to the forces
which flow from the redemption of the body, and which help to overcome
the consequences of sin and to constitute the unity of man and woman
according to the eternal plan of the Creator. The salvific action which
derives from the mystery of redemption assumes in itself the original
sanctifying action of God in the mystery of creation.
3. The words of the Gospel of Matthew (cf. Mt 19:3-9; Mk 10:2-12), have
at the same time a very expressive ethical eloquence. These words
confirmon
the basis of the mystery of redemptionthe
primordial sacrament, and at the same time, they establish an adequate
ethos which in our previous reflections we have called the ethos of
redemption. The evangelical and Christian ethos, in its theological
essence, is the ethos of redemption. Certainly, for that ethos we can
find a rational interpretation, a philosophical interpretation of a
personalistic character; however, in its theological essence, it is an
ethos of redemption, rather, an ethos of the redemption of the body.
Redemption becomes at the same time the basis for understanding the
particular dignity of the human body, rooted in the personal dignity of
the man and the woman. The reason of this dignity lies at the root of
the indissolubility of the conjugal covenant.
4. Christ refers to the indissoluble character of marriage as a
primordial sacrament, and, confirming this sacrament on the basis of the
mystery of redemption, he simultaneously draws conclusions of an ethical
nature: "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery
against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she
commits adultery" (Mk 10:11-12; cf. Mt 19:9). It can be said that in
this way redemption is given to man as a grace of the new covenant with
God in Christand
at the same time it is
assigned to him as an ethos, as the form of the morality corresponding
to God's action in the mystery of redemption. If marriage as a sacrament
is an effective sign of God's salvific action "from the beginning", at
the same timein
the light of Christ's words which are being considered herethis
sacrament constitutes also an exhortation addressed to man, male and
female, so that they may participate consciously in the redemption of
the body.
5. The ethical dimension of the redemption of the body is delineated in
an especially profound way when we meditate on Christ's words in the
Sermon on the Mount in regard to the commandment, "You shall not commit
adultery." "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit
adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman lustfully
has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Mt 5:27-28). We
have previously given an ample commentary on this statement of Christ in
the conviction that it has a fundamental significance for the whole
theology of the body, especially in the dimension of historical man.
Although these words do not refer directly and immediately to marriage
as a sacrament, it is impossible to separate them from the whole
sacramental substratum. As far as concerns the conjugal pact, the
existence of man as male and female is placed in that substratum, both
in the original context of the mystery of creation and then, later, in
the context of the mystery of redemption. This sacramental substratum
always regards individual persons. It penetrates into that which man and
woman are (or rather, into who man and woman are) in their original
dignity of image and likeness of God by reason of creation, and at the
same time, in the same dignity inherited in spite of sin and again
continually "assigned" to man as a duty through the reality of the
redemption.
6. Christ, in the Sermon on the Mount, gives his own interpretation of
the commandment, "You shall not commit adultery"an
interpretation constitutes a new ethoswith
the same lapidary words he assigns as a duty to every man the dignity of
every woman: and simultaneously (even though this can be deduced from
the text only in an indirect way), he also assigns to every woman the
dignity of every man.(1) Finally he assigns to every oneboth
to man and womantheir
own dignity, in a certain sense, the sacrum of the person. This is in
consideration of their femininity or masculinity, in consideration of
the body. It is not difficult to see that Christ's words in the Sermon
on the Mount regard the ethos. At the same time, it is not difficult to
affirm after deeper reflection that these words flow from the very
profundity of the redemption of the body. Although they do not refer
directly to marriage as a sacrament, it is not difficult to observe that
they achieve their proper and full significance in relationship with the
sacrament, whether that primordial sacrament which is united with the
mystery of creation, or that in which historical man, after sin and
because of his hereditary sinfulness, should find again the dignity and
holiness of the conjugal union in the body, on the basis of the mystery
of redemption.
7. In the Sermon on the Mountas
also in the conversation with the Pharisees on the indissolubility of
marriageChrist
speaks from the depths of that divine mystery. At the same time he
enters into the depths of the human mystery. For that reason he mentions
the heart, that intimate place in which there struggle struggle in man
good and evil, sin and justice, concupiscence and holiness. Speaking of
concupiscence (of the lustful look: cf. Mt 5:28), Christ made his
hearers aware that everyone bears within himself, together with the
mystery of sin, the interior dimension "of the man of concupiscence."
This is three-fold: "the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence
of the eyes and the pride of life" (1 Jn 2:16).
It is precisely to this man of concupiscence that there is given in
marriage the sacrament of redemption as a grace and a sign of the
covenant with Godand
it is assigned to him as an ethos. Simultaneously, in regard to marriage
as a sacrament, it is assigned as an ethos to every man, male and
female. It is assigned to his heart, to his conscience, to his looks,
and to his behavior. According to Christ's words (cf. Mt 19:4), marriage
is a sacrament from the very beginning. At the same time, on the basis
of man's historic sinfulness, it is a sacrament arising from the mystery
of the redemption of the body.
NOTE
1. The text of St. Mark which speaks of the indissolubility of
marriage clearly states that the woman also becomes a subject of
adultery when she divorces her husband and marries another (cf. Mk
10:12).
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