Analysis of Brennan R.

Hills article Reformulation the Sacramental Theology of Marriage

Fr. Manuel-Alfredo Razo-Canales University of Saint Mary of the Lake

Matrimony and Orders Dr. Perry Cahall 07/20/2011

In the article Reformulating the Sacramental Theology of Marriage, Brennan R. Hill proposes multiple key factors that must be taken into account. Among those factors, some of them are important to take into account because of the veracity of his affirmations or because of his errors. Only three factors will be mentioned in this work: the dynamic nature of Marriage, the denial of God as creator of marriage, and the integration of the secular and sacred dimensions of marriage in a new Sacramental Theology of Marriage. Hill claims that from a traditional Catholic perspective, marriage has always been considered as a state created by God and raised to the level of sacramentality by Jesus. He affirms that this is due to the Augustinian idea of marriage as a Sacramentum, which is an indelible sign or sealing of an irreversible commitment, not from the spouses to each other, but rather a commitment of the couple to God. In this viewpoint, the Christians who make such a commitment, by the virtue of this Sacrament, enter into a sealed commitment to be indissolubly married. They enter into this state by the vows of marriage and it is sealed through sexual intercourse. For him, this classical approach to marriage puts much emphasis on the static notions of seal, bond, indelible sign, and sacred contract, which takes place in the rite or ceremony of marriage. Consequently, this gives the image of marriage as a contract rather than as a covenant. He correctly affirms that marriage is not just a static contract, but rather a living relationship in grace and faith.1 In order to remain alive it must be an ongoing relationship freely chosen and actively nourished through mutual effort, love, sacrifice and fidelity. This means that the sacrament of marriage is not a

Brennan R. Hill, Reformulating the Sacramental Theology of Marriage, in Christian Marriage and Family, ed. Michael G. Lawler and William P. Roberts (Collegeville, MN:The Liturgical Press, 1993), 6.

static contract, but rather a dynamic and living sign of the presence of the couple to each other and to the Lord.2 He makes an error in affirming that the classical and traditional understandings of Matrimony are a static or permanent bond or contract. The Catholic understanding has always considered the Sacrament of Marriage not as a static contract or bond, but as a living covenant. For example, already in the 13th century, Saint Thomas Aquinas claimed that in the making of each Sacrament there are, first, the sacramentum tantum, that is the visible sign, in this case, the spouses interchanging the vows; second, the res et sacramentum, that is the permanent reality brought about by the sign3 and the immediate effect of the Sacrament, in this case the marital bond; and third and very important, the res tantum, which is the Grace bestowed on the spouses and the human response of faith, the continual Grace offered from God to the spouses, this means the living sacrament.4 This last Grace is better described and understood under the context of the marital living covenant. The Catholic teaching affirms that all Christians who are called to a state of married Christian life are never denied the Grace they need to live in their own Christian state of life, which is, a covenanted way of life. In order to maintain this covenant God, through this Grace, is constantly and permanently offering the couple His help. Nevertheless, the response, cooperation and action of the spouses to this Grace is needed.5 In the Making of the Sacrament, the Holy Spirit bounds two hearts together in the Heart of Christ, that are now one heart and one flesh and He

2 3

Ibid, 6. Peter J. Elliot, What God Has Joined: The Sacramentality of Marriage (Eugene, OR : Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1990), xix. 4 Ibid, 169. 5 Ibid, 181.

continues working on them. Consequently, through the Holy Spirit, Christ continues being present in each sacramental marriage.6 Hill claims that this view of marriage as a dynamic covenant implies a departure from the traditional view of this Sacrament as an unchangeable and static contract. He asserts that the Sacrament of Marriage is not crafted by God and instituted by Christ as an unchangeable institution. He claims that marriage has been always a human-created institution. For him, marriage is a Living and changing symbol in which God is bestowed on the couple and through them on the world they touch.7 In this human institution, God may be revealed and manifested; thus, any kind of marriage can be considered as a revelation of Gods covenantal love for his people.8 He asserts that any kind of human marriage may be the cause of the presence of God to the world, contrary to the traditional doctrine in which God is the cause and origin of the existence of marriage.9 Marriage is a creation of God. There are several ways to understand and corroborate the divine institution of marriage: a) In the Biblical accounts of Creation, b) in the Incarnation and redemption in which the Church is the image of the bride and Jesus, the Bridegroom, and c) in the image of the Trinity, the ultimate source of marriage.10 The accounts of creation are the most simple and clear ways to demonstrate the divine creation of marriage. For example, when Jesus Christ was asked about marriage, He referred to the book of Genesis, "Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh? ' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined

6 7 8 9 10

Ibid, 188. Hill, 6. Ibid, 6. Ibid, 6. Elliot, 4.

together, no human being must separate" (Mat 19:4-6). In this statement Jesus is corroborating the Divine origin of Marriage as a creation of God as a Divine bond joined by God and not being separated by human power.11 Also in the book of Genesis, we find two accounts of the divine origin of marriage, one says: God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them, saying: Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.(Gen 1:2728). In this account, God creates gender, male and female, God gives them a matrimonial blessing by the divine mandate to be fertile and multiply. This blessing and mandate makes the spouses more perfectly in the image and likeness of God, their creator. They become co-creators in their gender partnership and in the multiplying, filling the earth, subduing it by creative skills and having dominion over all creatures. This example is a proof that elevates marriage to an institution divinely founded and which has its origin in God.12 Hill makes an excellent commentary when claiming that there is a dichotomy between the secular and natural, and the sacred and supernatural aspects of marriage. He states that there is a division in studies about the nature of marriage. He says that in secular studies, such as sociological, psychological, and cultural analysis of marriage, little or no attention is paid to the sacred or supernatural aspect. On the other hand, it is true that the Catholic tradition regarding the sacramentality of marriage maintains the classical tradition isolated from the outlooks of modern perspectives.13 A good example of this issue is the biblical ways to understand marriage as a divine creation mentioned above in which no secular sources are taken in account. Hill is right when asserting that

11 12 13

Ibid, 6. Ibid, 7. Hill, 9.

the classical approach to the sacramental aspect of marriage seems spiritualized and so cut off from human experience that it becomes difficult to relate to married life as it is experienced today.14 In a Catholic perspective, marriage is considered as the great mystery. The nature of this great mystery is traditionally explained by analogies, Revelation, and theological speculations. For example, the analogy of Christ and his Church underlines the Paschal mystery of God Incarnate, crucified and risen, to whose Body the Church and all the Baptized are joined. This means the unity of things of heaven and things of earth, the unity of Jesus with His Church is an analogy of the unity of marriage.15 The use of biblical Revelation sources such as the accounts of Creation, the harmony of the marriage disrupted by the fall, the romantic fidelity of the Song of Songs, the dignity of the wife in Proverbs, the chaste love of Tobias and Sara, the marital laws in Deuteronomy, and etcetera, is another example of the Catholic attempts to understand this mystery.16 And finally there are theological speculations, such as the immanent Trinity, which means the speculative notions of the inner relations of the persons of the Trinity, (that is, at the same time, an analogy of human relations) as image of marriage. The notion of this inclusive union and communion of the Divine persons are used as an image of marriage and its relations. In this image, men and women are raised up to a Trinitarian life, sharing as creatures in that union and communion.17 All these ways to understand the Sacrament of marriage lack of the modern and real human experience of matrimony and its implications. They did not take into account the new kind of

14 15 16 17

Ibid, 9. Elliot, 4. Ibid, 12. Ibid, 41.

secularized marriage relationships and the new situations that marriages are facing, such as the increasing number of divorces in the world, the divorced marrying again, etc. Nowadays, to make an efficient Sacramental Theology of Marriage that gives response to the pastoral necessities of this age, first of all, it has to be taken into account the fact that marriage is a multi-dimensional reality. It is primarily a Divine institution, but it is also a secular state. This new way to do theology must listen to the historical, political and social changes and challenges that marriage is facing, and to be incorporated into a new Sacramental Theology of Marriage.18 This new way to understand the Sacramental Theology of Marriage must be made from below, it means, based on the historical and cultural experiences and needs of the people.19 This does not mean to go so far as other contemporary theologies from below has gone (such as some liberation theologies that have desacralized the historical reality and have tried to interpret the message of the Gospel only under the viewpoint of such historical reality). A new Sacramental Theology of Marriage must amalgamate those modern experiences, situations and needs regarding matrimony, with the dynamic and ongoing work and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, based on Sacred Scripture and Tradition.

18 19

Hill, 9. Ibid, 9.