Marriage

People have many ideas of what marriage means. It’s the ceremony, the pretty church or venue, the dress, the celebrations before and after, the honeymoon following but for many it is God’s blessing on their union that is the most important aspect. Maybe I am reading the wrong articles, but I never hear any one mention that it is a sacrament. Sacrament means ‘mystery’.

In the catholic faith we have many sacraments or mysteries (there are seven altogether: baptism, the eucharist, confirmation, reconciliation, anointing of the sick, marriage and holy orders). They are mysteries because God is involved in the process and grants his special grace so that we can partake in his divine life.

When two people marry, we ask God to join them together as ‘man and wife’. He is involved in the ceremony and without God’s presence and gift of grace, everything is only words. God loves everyone, there are no exceptions, and we can only ask for his help and sanctification of what we do when we follow what we know from the Bible.

We can’t break away from the rules we have been given even if we want to in love for our friends and empathy with them. We can cite the words but whether God is willing to go outside of what has been said can’t be tangible. Will he give his grace to a union that hasn’t been expressly allowed from what we know in the Bible? He will certainly love both partners in a loving relationship.

I feel in our present world, we are trying to achieve changes that are very difficult to make and there is a lot of anger and hurt. We need to keep talking to each other but most of all listen, because when you talk about something like marriage, you need to really be aware of what you are talking about and not just look at the superficial aspects.

I hope in writing the above that I have helped with the arguments in some way. It is written with love and not hate or phobia.

God bless,