Matrimony:

Definition of Terms:

  • Divorce: the legal dissolution of a marriage by civil authorities, but it does not have spiritual implications in the eyes of the Church.
  • Annulment: a declaration that a valid marriage never existed according to Church law. This could be due to various factors such as lack of consent, psychological incapacity, or other impediments.

The early Church understood marriage to be a sacrament—a visible sign instituted by Christ to give grace—rooted deeply in Scripture and Tradition. Marriage was seen as more than a legal or social contract as compared to its pagan counterparts; it was a profound mystery that reflected the union of Christ with His Church.

When Jesus came, he elevated matrimony to the same status it had originally possessed between Adam and Eve—the status of a sacrament. Thus, any valid marriage between two baptized people is a sacramental marriage and, once consummated, cannot be dissolved.  During Jesus’ public ministry, when the Pharisees challenged him on the issue of divorce and remarriage, he responded, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matt. 19:8).  Jesus, therefore, taught that if anyone so married divorces and remarries, that person is living in perpetual adultery, a state of mortal sin; “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery” (Luke 16:18; cf. Mark 10:11–12).

Paul was equally insistent on this fact, declaring, “Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. . . . Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive” (Rom. 7:2–3).  St. Paul further deepens this understanding in Ephesians 5:25-32, where he compares the relationship of husband and wife to the relationship between Christ and the Church: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Paul calls marriage a “great mystery” (Eph 5:32), a sacrament, because it signifies the indissoluble bond between Christ and His Bride, the Church. This union is loving, faithful, and fruitful, serving as a model for Christian marriage.

The Church Fathers played a significant role in developing the theology of marriage as a sacrament. St. Augustine, in his treatise On the Good of Marriage (De Bono Coniugali, Chapter 24), writes that marriage is a good because of its threefold purpose: fidelity, offspring, and the sacramental bond. Augustine stresses that even in the face of human sinfulness, the sacrament of marriage remains indissoluble. He states, “The compact of marriage may be dissolved by death, but not by divorce: for while both live, it continues a compact between them, although separation may take place” (De Bono Coniugali, Chapter 32). This articulation reflects the Church’s teaching that once a sacramental marriage is consummated, it cannot be broken by human authority.

St. John Chrysostom also highlights the dignity of marriage as a sacrament. In his Homily 20 on Ephesians, he writes, “The love of husband and wife is a force that welds society together… the foundation of everything.” He compares the conjugal union to the unity of Christ with the Church and urges spouses to see their marital bond as a reflection of divine love.

The Catholic Church’s sacramental theology of marriage also finds its expression in response to heresies throughout history, particularly during the rise of dualistic movements such as the Cathars. The Cathars, a Gnostic sect prevalent in the 12th century, rejected marriage, viewing the material world, including the human body and sexuality, as evil. They believed procreation trapped souls in physical bodies, thus condemning marriage and sexual union as inherently sinful. In response to these heretical views, the Church affirmed the goodness of creation, including the body, and upheld marriage as a divinely instituted sacrament.

The Council of Verona (1184) condemned Catharism and its teachings, defending marriage as a sacred institution. Later, the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), convened by Pope Innocent III, reiterated the indissolubility of marriage and condemned the heresies of the Cathars. Canon 50 of the Council reaffirms that the bond of marriage, once validly contracted and consummated, cannot be dissolved except by death, a direct response to the dualistic and anti-marriage ideology of the Cathars. The Council also required marriages to be publicly declared in churches, a practice that emphasized the communal and sacred nature of marriage, setting it apart from mere private arrangements.

The sacramental understanding of marriage was further solidified during the medieval period, especially in reaction to the teachings of groups like the Cathars, who denied the value of marriage. The Church, through councils and papal teachings, continued to stress that marriage is a covenantal relationship instituted by God, and thus indissoluble and sacred.

St. Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest theologians of the Church, also contributed to the theology of marriage as a sacrament. In his Summa Theologica (Part III, Q. 65, Art. 1), Aquinas affirms that marriage, like the other sacraments, gives grace. He explains that since marriage symbolizes the union of Christ with the Church, it is fitting that marriage be a sacrament, for it imparts the grace necessary for the spouses to live out their marital union in fidelity and holiness.

One of the key theological insights of Aquinas is that marriage, in its sacramental form, not only points to the union between Christ and His Church but also confers grace upon the spouses to help them live out their marital vocation. Marriage is not merely a natural good but a supernatural reality elevated by Christ, enabling the couple to grow in holiness through their mutual love and self-giving.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the sacramentality of marriage is affirmed with reference to its biblical and traditional foundations. The Catechism states that “the matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring” (CCC 1601). It further teaches that the grace of the sacrament perfects the couple’s love and strengthens their indissoluble unity (CCC 1641).

Throughout history, the Church has maintained this sacramental understanding of marriage in the face of numerous challenges. Whether confronting the dualism of the Cathars or the cultural pressures of modern secularism, the Church remains steadfast in teaching that marriage is a sacred, indissoluble covenant that reflects God’s plan for humanity. As Jesus taught in Matthew 19, “What God has joined together, let no one separate.” This teaching, safeguarded by the Fathers, defended by councils, and expounded upon by theologians like Augustine and Aquinas, remains at the heart of the Catholic understanding of marriage.

The sacrament of marriage, therefore, is not just a social institution but a divine covenant, instituted by God from the beginning of creation, sanctified by Christ, and sustained by the grace of the Holy Spirit. It serves as a living sign of God’s fidelity and love, a vocation to holiness for the spouses, and a means by which God continues to reveal His covenantal love to the world. Through the sacrament of marriage, Christian spouses become living icons of the love between Christ and His Church, a love that is faithful, fruitful, and indissoluble.

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Bible Verses:

Luke 16:18

“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery”

Mark 10:11–12

“He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’

Romans 7:2–3

“Thus a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. . . . Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive”

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Church Father Quotes:

The Shepherd of Hermas

“What then shall the husband do, if the wife continue in this disposition [adultery]? Let him divorce her, and let the husband remain single. But if he divorce his wife and marry another, he too commits adultery” (The Shepherd 4:1:6 [A.D. 80]).

Ignatius of Antioch

“[I]t becomes both men and women who marry to form their union with the approval of the bishop, that their marriage may be according to God, and not after their own lust.” -Letter to Polycarp (107 A.D.)

Justin Martyr

“In regard to chastity, [Jesus] has this to say: ‘If anyone look with lust at a woman, he has already before God committed adultery in his heart.’ And, ‘Whoever marries a woman who has been divorced from another husband, commits adultery.’ According to our Teacher, just as they are sinners who contract a second marriage, even though it be in accord with human law, so also are they sinners who look with lustful desire at a woman. He repudiates not only one who actually commits adultery, but even one who wishes to do so; for not only our actions are manifest to God, but even our thoughts” (First Apology 15 [A.D. 151]).

Clement of Alexandria

“That Scripture counsels marriage, however, and never allows any release from the union, is expressly contained in the law: ‘You shall not divorce a wife, except for reason of immorality.’ And it regards as adultery the marriage of a spouse, while the one from whom a separation was made is still alive. ‘Whoever takes a divorced woman as wife commits adultery,’ it says; for ‘if anyone divorce his wife, he debauches her’; that is, he compels her to commit adultery. And not only does he that divorces her become the cause of this, but also he that takes the woman and gives her the opportunity of sinning; for if he did not take her, she would return to her husband” (Miscellanies 2:23:145:3 [A.D. 208]).

Origen

“Just as a woman is an adulteress, even though she seem to be married to a man, while a former husband yet lives, so also the man who seems to marry her who has been divorced does not marry her, but, according to the declaration of our Savior, he commits adultery with her” (Commentaries on Matthew 14:24 [A.D. 248]).

Council of Elvira

“Likewise, women who have left their husbands for no prior cause and have joined themselves with others, may not even at death receive Communion” (Canon 8 [A.D. 300]).

“Likewise, a woman of the faith [i.e., a baptized person] who has left an adulterous husband of the faith and marries another, her marrying in this manner is prohibited. If she has so married, she may not receive Communion—unless he that she has left has since departed from this world” (Canon 9).

“If she whom a catechumen [an unbaptized person studying the faith] has left shall have married a husband, she is able to be admitted to the fountain of baptism. This shall also be observed in the instance where it is the woman who is the catechumen. But if a woman of the faithful is taken in marriage by a man who left an innocent wife, and if she knew that he had a wife whom he had left without cause, it is determined that Communion is not to be given to her even at death” (Canon 10).

Ambrose of Milan

“No one is permitted to know a woman other than his wife. The marital right is given you for this reason: lest you fall into the snare and sin with a strange woman. ‘If you are bound to a wife do not seek a divorce’; for you are not permitted, while your wife lives, to marry another” (Abraham 1:7:59 [A.D. 387]).

“You dismiss your wife, therefore, as if by right and without being charged with wrongdoing; and you suppose it is proper for you to do so because no human law forbids it; but divine law forbids it. Anyone who obeys men ought to stand in awe of God. Hear the law of the Lord, which even they who propose our laws must obey: ‘What God has joined together let no man put asunder’” (Commentary on Luke 8:5 [A.D. 389]).

Jerome

“So long as a husband lives, be he adulterer, be he sodomite, be he addicted to every kind of vice, if she left him on account of his crimes, he is her husband still and she may not take another” (Letters 55:3 [A.D. 396]).

“Wherever there is fornication and a suspicion of fornication, a wife is freely dismissed. Because it is always possible that someone may calumniate the innocent and, for the sake of a second joining in marriage, act in criminal fashion against the first, it is commanded that when the first wife is dismissed, a second may not be taken while the first lives” (Commentaries on Matthew3:19:9 [A.D. 398]).

Pope Innocent I

“[T]he practice is observed by all of regarding as an adulteress a woman who marries a second time while her husband yet lives, and permission to do penance is not granted her until one of them is dead” (Letters 2:13:15 [A.D. 408]).

Augustine

“A woman begins to be the wife of no later husband unless she has ceased to be the wife of a former one. She will cease to be the wife of a former one, however, if that husband should die, not if he commit fornication. A spouse, therefore, is lawfully dismissed for cause of fornication; but the bond of chastity remains. That is why a man is guilty of adultery if he marries a woman who has been dismissed even for this very reason of fornication” (Adulterous Marriages 1:9:9 [A.D. 419]). .

“Undoubtedly the substance of the sacrament is of this bond, so that when man and woman have been joined in marriage they must continue inseparably as long as they live, nor is it allowed for one spouse to be separated from the other except for cause of fornication. For this is preserved in the case of Christ and the Church, so that, as a living one with a living one, there is no divorce, no separation forever” (Marriage and Concupiscence 1:10:11 [A.D. 419]).

“In marriage, however, let the blessings of marriage be loved: offspring, fidelity, and the sacramental bond. Offspring, not so much because it may be born, but because it can be reborn; for it is born to punishment unless it be reborn to life. Fidelity, but not such as even the unbelievers have among themselves, ardent as they are for the flesh. . . . The sacramental bond, which they lose neither through separation nor through adultery, this the spouses should guard chastely and harmoniously” (ibid., 1:17:19).

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Non-Catholic Quotes:

 

Martin Luther

“The estate of marriage is a good thing, and a most noble gift from God; for it is a protection against the devil.” – Luther’s Works, Vol. 45, “The Christian in Society” (Sermon on the Estate of Marriage)

John Calvin:

“It is better for a man to marry than to burn with passion.” –Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book IV, Chapter 19

Ulrich Zwingli:

“To be married is not merely to satisfy the flesh, but it is a spiritual and holy act.” –Zwingli’s Commentary on True and False Religion (1531)

Thomas Cranmer:

“Marriage is a godly and honorable estate, instituted of God.” –The Book of Common Prayer (1549)

John Knox:

“Marriages contracted without the Word of God are no marriages.” –The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women (1558)

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