A. Basic RealitiesB. Purpose of Marriage in CreationC. Marriage as Realized Among the

Chosen People

ObjectivesTo have a clear and deeper understanding

of Christian teachings regarding the nature and realities of marriage

To identify some specific instructions and clarifications God gives to couples to fulfill his plan

Analyze why and how Adam and Eve’s disobedience disturbed the whole plan of God

Basic Realities of MarriageHuman and secular reality

Innate and natural Important and significant

Sacred reality Superior power connected to getting

marriage It is connected to divine A mysterion or sacrament: sign of a higher

and sacred reality which entered salvation

Basic Realities of MarriageMarriage is a human institution

Officium naturae (duty of nature) since it is directed to procreation

Nature demands that human beings should perpetuate or continue their specie

Marriage is divine institutionIt is from God and its ends, laws, blessings

(Casti Conubii)

Basic Realities MarriageMarriage as state

Exist by giving and accepting the consent, by which creates the situation or the state of being married (permanent and stable)

Marriage as eventIt is not stagnated, the life of the couple moves

onThus it is a continuous event, lifelong process

to fulfill God’s plan

Basic Realities of Marriage Marriage is contract

“Contract” is an agreement entered into by two parties or person to do something for or exchange something with each other

Marriage is a contract because it is the agreement between man and woman to give to and to accept from the other

Basic Realities of MarriageMarriage as covenant

“Covenant” means a pact, an alliance or partnership that man and woman from to commit themselves to lifetime of togetherness for their own good, and for the creation and education of children

This commitment is made out of their love for each other

Basic Realities MarriageMarriage as social institution

Marriage is a deeply personal affair between two persons in love

Yet it introduces the couple a community (marriage is a social institution)There is a communitarian and public dimension

Purpose of Marriage in CreationTwo accounts of creation:1. Gen. 2: 2-25 (Yahwist)2. Gen. 1:1-30 (priestly tradition)

Narrator: Then the LORD God said

God: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him."

Narrator: So out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said

Man: "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."

Narrator: Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked, and were not ashamed.

Gen. 2: 18-25

Gen. 2:2-25Narrates that God

created for him a helpmate (Gen. 2:18-25)

Illustrated in this passage is the gift of sexuality from God

This sexuality is an answer to man’s deep longing to be with another of his own kind

Gen. 2:2-25Man was created according to God’s

image and likenessThey are meant for each other through

the gift of sexualityN.B.: Man and woman are different in

certain ways yet essentially and equally the same in nature and dignity.This clearly states and indicates a

monogamous relationship/union

Gen. 1:26-28Narrator: Then God said

God: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.

Narrator: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them,

God: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

Gen. 1:26-28“male and female”

Means they are distinct yet equal

Share the same and equal responsibility-begetting offspring

Created in God’s image and likeness- intrinsically good

Gen. 3All was not well in

God’s creationReality failed to

meet the idealSin entered in the

world

Gen. 3:16-19To the woman he said, "I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

Gen. 3Consequences of

Sin

Man:

Work with sweat from his face

Digging the ground

Gen. 3Woman

1. Difficulty in maternity or childbearing

2. Ruled over by the husband

Gen. 3Man and Woman

original communion was ruptured Will dominate each other Lust Pain of child birth Hardship of work Emergence of sexual hierarchy Mixing and interchanging gender role

Marriage as Realized among the People

Marriage Before the ProphetsBefore the Time of the ProphetsWomen were clearly made subordinatedTheir roles: based on their status in

relation to men Daughters Wives Mothers

Marriage Before the ProphetsFunctions of women: bearing children

the primary value is procreation.

Sexuality was taken as a means by which couples became involve in creative and historical plan of God

Marriage Before the ProphetsPolygamous relationships were even

allowed (Gen. 29:21-30, 2 Sam. 5: 13-16)Divorce, initiated by the husband only, was

a usual practice (Dt. 24:1-2)Bareness was considered disgrace

(Gen. 3:2)Concubinage was tolerated as means to

find a substitute for the barren wife (Gen. 30:1-13)

Levirate law was implemented

Marriage According to the ProphetsProphet Hosea: marriage is covenant (Hos.

2:16,18,21)Deepening Israel’s understanding on

marriage, is touched on Jer. 3:14“ Return, O faithless children, says the

LORD; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.”

Marriage According to ProphetsBook of Ruth and Tobit: a richer and deeper

meaning of marriage (Tb. 8:5-8)

They bear a moving account of this elevated sense of marriage and are witnesses to the fidelity and tenderness of spouses (CCC 1611)