The seventh sacrament is matrimony,

1

• "The seventh sacrament is matrimony,
• which is a figure
• of the union of Christ,
• and the Church
• (Council of Florence, in the Decree for the
  Armenians)

2

• What makes marriage a Sacrament?
• it must be a sacred religious rite instituted by
  Christ
• this rite must be a sign of interior
  sanctification
• it must confer this interior sanctification or
  Divine grace
• this effect of Divine grace must be produced, not
  only in conjunction with the respective religious
  act, but through it.
• Whoever attributes these elements to Christian
  marriage declares it a true sacrament in the
  strict sense of the word.

3
The Church has in fact always taught concerning
marriage what belongs to the essence of a
sacrament.
4

• Leo XIII in his Encyclical "Arcanum"
• (10 February, 1880)
• "To the teaching of the Apostles, indeed, are to
  be referred the doctrines which our holy fathers,
  the councils, and the tradition of the Universal
  Church have always taught, namely that Christ our
  Lord raised marriage to the dignity of a
  sacrament."
• Pope Leo rightly emphasizes the importance of the
  tradition of the Universal Church.

5

• "Let women be subject to their husbands, as to
  the Lord
• because the husband is the head of the wife,
• as Christ is the head of the Church.
• He is the savior of his body.
• Therefore as the Church is subject to Christ,
• so also let the wives be to their husbands in all
  things.
• Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved
  the Church, and delivered Himself up for it
• that He might sanctify it,
• cleansing it by the laver of water in the word
  of life
• that He might present it to Himself a glorious
  church
• not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing
• but that it should be holy, and without blemish.
• So also ought men to love their wives as their
  own bodies.
• He that loves his wife, loves himself.
• For no man ever hated his own flesh
• but nourishes it and cherishes it, as also Christ
  doth the Church
• because we are members of His body, of His flesh,
  and of His bones.
• (Eph. 522)

6

• Paul then alludes to the Divine institution of
  marriage in the prophetical words proclaimed by
  God through Adam
• "For this cause shall a man leave his father and
  mother and shall cleave to his wife, and they
  shall be two in one flesh."
• He then concludes with the significant words in
  which he characterizes Christian marriage
• "This is a great sacrament
• but I speak in Christ and in the Church."

7
The love of Christian spouses for each other
should be modeled on the love between Christ and
the Church
8

• Christian marriage, as a copy and token of the
  union of Christ with the Church, is a great
  mystery or sacrament.
• It solemnly and efficaciously represents the
  union of Christ with the Church
• It takes concrete form in the individual members
  of the Church,
• not merely by signifying the supernatural
  life-union of Christ with the Church,
• but also by causing that union to be realized in
  the individual members
• It confers the supernatural life of grace.

9

• "From a valid marriage arises a bond between the
  spouses which by its very nature is perpetual and
  exclusive
• furthermore, in a Christian marriage the spouses
  are strengthened
• And consecrated for the duties and the dignity of
  their state by a special
• sacrament.
• (ccc 1638)

10

• The first marriage between Adam and Eve in
  Paradise was a symbol of this union
• Individual Christian marriages are subsequent
  representations of the first marriage.
• There would be no reason that Paul should refer
  with such emphasis to Christian marriage as so
  great a sacrament,
• if the greatness of Christian marriage did not
  lie in the fact, that it is not a mere sign, but
  an efficacious sign of the life of grace.

11

• "Among all people and all men the good that is
  secured by marriage consists in the offspring and
  in the chastity of married fidelity
• but, in the case of Gods people, it consists
  moreover in the holiness of the sacrament,
• by reason of which it is forbidden, even after a
  separation has taken place, to marry another as
  long as the first partner lives . . .
• just as priests are ordained to draw together a
  Christian community, and even though no such
  community be formed, the Sacrament of Orders
  still abides in those ordained,
• or just as the Sacrament of the Lord, once it is
  conferred, abides even in one who is dismissed
  from his office on account of guilt, although in
  such a one it abides unto judgment.
• (St. Augustine,"De bono conjugii)

12

• "Undoubtedly it belongs to the essence of this
  sacrament that, when man and wife are once united
  by marriage, this bond remains indissoluble
  throughout their lives.
• As long as both live, there remains a something
  attached to the marriage, which neither mutual
  separation nor union with a third can remove
• in such cases, indeed, it remains for the
  aggravation of the guilt of their crime, not for
  the strengthening of the union.
• Just as the soul of an apostate, which was once
  similarly wedded unto Christ and now separates
  itself from Him, does not, in spite of its loss
  of faith, lose the Sacrament of Faith, which it
  has received in the waters of regeneration."
• ("De Nuptiis et Concupiscentia)
• In these words, St. Augustine places marriage,
  which he names a sacrament, on the same level
  with Baptism and Holy Orders.

13

• Scarcely less clear is the testimony of St.
  Ambrose.
• "We also do not deny that marriage was sanctified
  by Christ"
• (letter to Siricius)
• "We know that God is the Head and Protector, who
  does not permit that another's marriage-bed be
  defiled and further that one guilty of such a
  crime sins against God, whose command he
  contravenes and whose bond of grace he loosens.
  Therefore, since he has sinned against God, he
  now loses his participation in the heavenly
  sacrament.
• ("De Abraham)

According to Ambrose Christian marriage is a
heavenly sacrament, which binds one with God by
the bonds of grace until these bonds are sundered
by subsequent sin.
14

• "Marriage has God for its Author, and was from
  the very beginning a kind of foreshadowing of the
  Incarnation of the Divine Word
• consequently, there abides in it a something holy
  and religious
• not extraneous but innate
• not derived from man, but implanted by nature
• We call to witness the monuments of antiquity, as
  also the manners and customs of those peoples
  who, being the most civilized, had a finer sense
  of equity and right.
• In the minds of all of them it was a deeply
  rooted conviction that marriage was to be
  regarded as something sacred.
• Hence, among these, marriages were commonly
  celebrated with religious ceremonies, under the
  authority of pontiffs, and with the ministry of
  priests -so great, even in the souls ignorant of
  heavenly doctrine, was the impression produced by
  the nature of marriage, by reflection on the
  history of mankind, and by the consciousness of
  the human race."
• (Pope Leo XII)

15
The term "sacrament", applied by the pope to all
marriage, even those of infidels, is to be taken
in its widest sense, and signifies nothing but a
certain holiness inherent in marriage.
16

• The original marriage, and consequently marriage
  as it was conceived in the original plan of God
  before sin
• was to be the means not merely of the natural
  propagation of the human race
• (procreative),
• but also the means by which personal supernatural
  sanctity should be transmitted to the individual
  descendents of our first parents
• (unitive).

17

• It was, therefore, a great mystery,
• intended not for the personal sanctification of
  those united by the marriage tie,
• but for the sanctification of others,
• i.e. of their offspring.

18

• But this Divinely ordered sanctity of marriage
  was destroyed by original sin.
• The effectual sanctification of the human race,
• or rather of individual men,
• had now to be accomplished in the way of
  redemption through the Promised Redeemer,
• the Son of God made Man.

19

• It was reserved for Christian marriage to
  symbolize this higher supernatural union with
  mankind,
• It foreshadowed the Incarnation of the Son of
  God,
• and the close union which God was thereby to form
  with the human race
• that is,
• with those who unite themselves to Christ in
  faith and love,
• and to be an efficacious sign of this union.

20

• What in the marriage contract is the real essence
  of the sacrament as to its matter and form, and
  its minister?

From the earliest times this fundamental
proposition has been upheld Marriage is
contracted through the mutual, expressed consent.
Therein is contained implicitly the doctrine
that the persons contracting marriage are
themselves the agents or ministers of the
sacrament.
21
The Catechism of the Catholic Faith states (1639)

• The consent by which the spouses mutually give
  and receive one another is sealed by God himself.
• From their covenant arises
• "an institution,
• confirmed by the divine law,
• . . . even in the eyes of society.
• The covenant between the spouses is
• integrated into God's covenant with man
  "Authentic married love is caught up into divine
  love."

22
Marriage is unique and very different from the
other sacraments

• Marriage, inasmuch as
• it is an outward sign of grace
• and also produces interior grace,
• has the nature common to all the sacraments.
• Viewed as an external sign, however,
• Marriage is a contract
• and even as an effective sign or sacrament,
• has precisely the nature and quality of a
  contract,
• its validity depending on the rules for the
  validity of contracts.

23
It is a matter of secondary consideration, how
and in what sense the matter and form of this
sacrament are to be taken.

• In every contract two elements are to be
  distinguished,
• the foundation or the offering of a right
• and the juridical completion or acceptance of it
• The same holds true of the sacramental contract
  of marriage
• an offering of the marriage right (the matter)
  is contained in the mutual declaration of consent
  
• and a mutual acceptance (the form) is contained
  within the declaration.

24
We can distinguish between a contract in its
origin and a contract in its continuance

• just so we can distinguish in the sacrament of
  marriage its origin and continuance.
• The sacrament origin is the mutual declaration of
  consent
• The sacrament in continuance is the Divine bond
  which unites the married persons for life.
• In most of the other sacraments also there is
  this distinction but the continuance of the other
  sacraments is based mostly on the inadmissible
  character which they impress upon the soul of the
  recipient.
• Not so with marriage

25

• In the soul of the recipient there is a question
  of no new physical being or mode of being
• But of a legal relationship which can as a rule
  be broken only by death,
• although in individual cases it may otherwise be
  rendered void, provided the marriage has not been
  consummated.

26

• In this respect, therefore, marriage, especially
  as a sacrament, differs from other contracts,
  since it is not subject to the free will of the
  individuals.
• Of course, the choice of a partner and especially
  the contracting or non-contracting of marriage
  are subject to the free will of the individuals
• but any revocation or essential altering of the
  terms is beyond the power of the contracting
  parties
• the essence of the contractual sacrament is
  Divinely regulated.

27
Not every marriage is a true sacrament, but only
marriages between Christians.

• One becomes and remains a Christian
• through valid baptism.
• Only one who has been validly baptized can
  contract a marriage which is a sacrament
• but every one can contract it
• who has been validly baptized,
• whether they have remained true to the Christian
  faith, or become a heretic, or even an infidel.
• Such has always been the teaching and practice of
  the Church.

28

• Hence not only marriage between Catholics,
• but also that contracted by members of the
  different sects which have retained baptism and
  validly baptize,
• is undoubtedly a sacrament.
• It matters not whether the non-Catholic considers
  marriage a sacrament or not, or whether he
  intends to effect a sacrament or not.
• Provided only he intends to contract a true
  marriage, and expresses the requisite consent,
• this intention and this expression are sufficient
  to constitute a sacrament.

29

• Since marriage establishes the couple in a public
• state of life in the Church,
• it is fitting that
• its celebration be public,
• in the framework of a liturgical celebration,
• before the priest (or a witness authorized by the
  Church),
• the witnesses,
• and the assembly of the faithful.

30

• Unity, indissolubility, and openness to fertility
  are
• essential to marriage.
• Polygamy is incompatible with the unity of
  marriage
• divorce separates what God has joined together
• the refusal of fertility turns married life away
  from its "supreme gift," the child (GS 50 1).

31

• The remarriage of persons divorced from a living,
  lawful spouse contravenes the plan and law of God
  as taught by Christ.
• They are not separated from the Church, but they
  cannot receive Eucharistic communion.
• They will lead Christian lives especially by
  educating their children in the faith.

32

• The Christian home is the place where children
  receive the first proclamation of the faith.
• For this reason the family home is rightly called
  
• "the domestic church,"
• a community of grace and prayer,
• a school of human virtues
• and of Christian charity.