John
Paul II - Theology of the Body |
Language of the Body, the
Substratum and Content of the Sacramental Sign of Spousal Communion
General Audience, January 5, 1983
1. "I take you as my wife"; "I take
you as my husband"—these words are at the center of the liturgy of
marriage as a sacrament of the Church. These words spoken by the
engaged couple are inserted in the following formula of consent: "I
promise to be faithful to you always, in joy and in sorrow, in
sickness and in health, and to love and honor you all the days of my
life." With these words the engaged couple enter the marriage
contract and at the same time receive the sacrament of which both
are the ministers. Both of them, the man and the woman, administer
the sacrament. They do it before witnesses. The priest is a
qualified witness, and at the same time he blesses the marriage and
presides over the whole sacramental liturgy. Moreover, all those
participating in the marriage rite are in a certain sense witnesses,
and some of them (usually two) are called specifically to act as
witnesses in an official way. They must testify that the marriage
was contracted before God and confirmed by the Church. In the
ordinary course of events sacramental marriage is a public act by
means of which two persons, a man and a woman, become husband and
wife before the ecclesial society, that is, they become the actual
subject of the marriage vocation and life.
2. Marriage is a sacrament which is contracted by means of the word
which is a sacramental sign by reason of its content: "I take you as
my wife—as my husband—and I promise to be always faithful to you, in
joy and sorrow, in sickness and in health, and to love you and honor
you all the days of my life." However, this sacramental word is, per
se, merely the sign of the coming into being of marriage. The coming
into being of marriage is distinguished from its consummation, to
the extent that without this consummation the marriage is not yet
constituted in its full reality. The fact that a marriage is
juridically contracted but not consummated (ratum—non consummatum)
corresponds to the fact that it has not been fully constituted as a
marriage. Indeed the very words "I take you as my wife—my husband"
refer not only to a determinate reality, but they can be fulfilled
only by means of conjugal intercourse. This reality (conjugal
intercourse) has moreover been determined from the very beginning by
institution of the Creator: "Therefore a man leaves his father and
his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh" (cf.
Gn 2:24).
3. Thus then, from the words whereby the man and the woman express
their willingness to become "one flesh" according to the eternal
truth established in the mystery of creation, we pass to the reality
which corresponds to these words. Both the one and the other element
are important in regard to the structure of the sacramental sign, to
which it is fitting to devote the remainder of the present
reflections. Granted that the sacrament is a sign which expresses
and at the same time effects the saving reality of grace and of the
covenant, one must now consider it under the aspect of sign, whereas
the previous reflections were dedicated to the reality of grace and
of the covenant.
Marriage, as a sacrament of the Church, is contracted by means of
the words of the ministers, that is, of the newlyweds. These words
signify and indicate, in the order of intention, that which (or
rather, who) both have decided to be from now on, the one for the
other and the one with the other. The words of the newlyweds form a
part of the integral structure of the sacramental sign, not merely
for what they signify but also, in a certain sense, with what they
signify and determine. The sacramental sign is constituted in the
order of intention insofar as it is simultaneously constituted in
the real order.
4. Consequently, the sacramental sign of marriage is constituted by
the words of the newlyweds inasmuch as the "reality" which they
themselves constitute corresponds to those words. Both of them, as
man and woman, being the ministers of the sacrament in the moment of
contracting marriage, constitute at the same time the full and real
visible sign of the sacrament itself. The words spoken by them would
not per se constitute the sacramental sign of marriage unless there
corresponded to them the human subjectivity of the engaged couple
and at the same time the awareness of the body, linked to the
masculinity and femininity of the husband and wife. Here it is
necessary to recall to mind the whole series of our previous
analyses in regard to Genesis (cf. Gn 1:2). The structure of the
sacramental sign remains essentially the same as "in the beginning."
In a certain sense, it is determined by the language of the body.
This is inasmuch as the man and the woman, who through marriage
should become one flesh, express in this sign the reciprocal gift of
masculinity and femininity as the basis of the conjugal union of the
persons.
5. The sacramental sign of marriage is constituted by the fact that
the words spoken by the newlyweds use again the same language of the
body as at the "beginning," and in any case they give a concrete and
unique expression to it. They give it an intentional expression on
the level of intellect and will, of consciousness and of the heart.
The words "I take you as my wife—as my husband" imply precisely that
perennial, unique and unrepeatable language of the body. At the same
time they situate it in the context of the communion of the persons:
"I promise to be always faithful to you, in joy and in sadness, in
sickness and in health, and to love you and honor you all the days
of my life." In this way the enduring and ever new language of the
body is not only the "substratum." But in a certain sense, it is the
constitutive element of the communion of the persons. The
persons—man and woman—become for each other a mutual gift. They
become that gift in their masculinity and femininity, discovering
the spousal significance of the body and referring it reciprocally
to themselves in an irreversible manner—in a life-long dimension.
6. Thus the sacrament of marriage as a sign enables us to understand
the words of the newlyweds. These words confer a new aspect on their
life in a dimension strictly personal (and interpersonal: communio
personarum), on the basis of the language of the body. The
administration of the sacrament consists in this: that in the moment
of contracting marriage the man and the woman, by means of suitable
words and recalling the perennial language of the body, form a sign,
an unrepeatable sign, which has also a significance for the future:
"all the days of my life," that is to say, until death. This is a
visible and efficacious sign of the covenant with God in Christ,
that is, of grace which in this sign should become a part of them as
"their own special gift" (according to the expression of 1Cor 7:7).
7. Expressing this matter in socio-juridical terms, one can say that
between the newlyweds there is a stipulated, well-defined conjugal
pact. It can also be said that following upon this pact, they have
become spouses in a manner socially recognized, and that in this way
the family as the fundamental social cell is also constituted in
germ. This manner of understanding it is obviously in agreement with
the human reality of marriage. Indeed, it is also fundamental in the
religious and religious-moral sense. However, from the point of view
of the theology of the sacrament, the key for the understanding of
marriage is always the reality of the sign whereby marriage is
constituted on the basis of the covenant of man with God in Christ
and in the Church. It is constituted in the supernatural order of
the sacred bond requiring grace. In this order marriage is a visible
and efficacious sign. Having its origin in the mystery of creation,
it derives its new origin from the mystery of redemption at the
service of the "union of the sons of God in truth and in love" (Gaudium
et Spes 24). The liturgy of the sacrament of marriage gave a form to
that sign: directly, during the sacramental rite, on the basis of
the ensemble of its eloquent expressions; indirectly, throughout the
whole of life. As spouses, the man and woman bear this sign
throughout the whole of their lives and they remain as that sign
until death.
Taken from: L'Osservatore Romano Weekly Edition in English 3-10
January 1983, page 7
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