The E-catechism: March 1999

The sacrament of marriage

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Each month the team working on this catechism presents you with two texts, and we hope that with your help and cooperation they will improve. Any suggestions you may have would be most welcome, as would ideas on subject matter.

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THE SACRAMENT OF MARRIAGE

 

Among the important time of one's existence, the engagement to live two together is certainly a decisive step forward, which for the Christians, reaches all its meaning through a sacramental celebration. Even if the enlivening presence of God makes its mark on our lives up to every small detail, it is good to acknowledge it at specific times of our lives. How could God who is Love, not be interested in our lives and in the bonds which binds us together. Commitment to each other is one of the important events of our existence.

Marriage is a human institution, established according to the rules of the civil society. The Church does not marry. But the Church can somewhat take over this commitment in a sacramental liturgy. Because in celebrating married love, it announces and proclaims that God is at the core of this love, of which He is the source, that He brings it to life and discloses its infinite dimension.

The sacrament of marriage is the meeting between the loving and rewarding presence of God and the commitment of love between two persons who decide to live together for their full fulfillment, and rich of this enlightening sharing they will create together life and love. Not only because of the children that they will get together, but also in every aspects of their life associated with the Good News of Jesus " What you are doing for the least of the little ones, you will do unto me.

If the wedding celebration exhibits a special solemnity the day the couple express publicly their engagement surrounded by a fervent and praying community , the sacrament is not at all limited at this maiden step. Their wedding becomes more and more a sacrament all along their life, if their love, inspired by the Spirit, is acting in their daily life.

Then the sacrament of marriage, alliance between a human action and a divine inspiration, is in keeping with the future of a couple called to radiate the flame which motivates their family and social life. Society is seriously in needs of this ferment of solidarity and love.

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ETERNAL LIFE

 

What does Eternal Life mean for a human being of which the end of life is inescapably programmed? How can we imagine an eternal life when we are living in a given historical time, with a beginning, an end and in between a series of events which make us what we are? Eternal life is difficult to accept for those who think that there is no after-life. However deeply rooted in every human it exists a desire to go beyond one's own limits, a call for a better, a call for more, a desire to live life to the full, all this drives humanity towards progress and happiness. There is not a great difference between the atheist who does not believe in heaven and the believer who believes in it: the latter is no more sure of the existence of heaven than the former is sure that it does not exist.

Despite our efforts of imagination eternal life cannot be proven even if we try to extrapolate from biological facts or from the relationship between space and time used in Physics. Eternal life is not a matter of fact. It is only a faith in a God who does not abandon us. The Christian faith in life after death is founded on the resurrection of Jesus. God did not give up his Son after his death on a cross, then He will not abandon us either. Eternal life cannot be obtained through our merits but it is a gift. One can even wonder if it is not yet given now when we are alive. Every time we fight against illness or win the battle of life, every time we preserve and develop a human life, every time we improve economical, social, political or ecological aspects of human life, every time we struggle against misery and injustice, we introduce eternal life in our own life. Every time we are impressed by the beauty of the world, attracted by kindness, excited by learning and discovery, overwhelmed by the weakness of the smallest ones among us, we are living moments of eternity. This eternal life is buried in our humanity like a mustard seed, a tiny seed, which will grow to become a tree where birds will be able to shelter. Eternal life starts here on earth and continues to spread after death, without radically changing our direction, even though it is a new step in our life, which is not destroyed but is transformed. Eternal life concerns all our being, then also our tangible body and our personal relationships, without which we are nothing. Ties already woven, love given and received, are integral parts of ourselves. We cannot exist alone, we cannot be happy alone, it is together that we will lived eternally. Through our decisions, our loves and our struggles, like an indefinite opening of desire rather than a full satisfaction, this life can be qualified as eternal although starting now and already existing in our hopes. Not like a latent life in an eternal rest but a life in plenitude associated with the creativity of God. We will make new skies and a new earth, into the dream we already have, and He will wipe all tears from our eyes.

Despite some sparkling of eternity which sometimes transfigure our lives, we are not sure about the reality of eternal life, we can only be confident. In the Gospel, Jesus appears to control life, He is life..., "My life nobody can take it away, I can give it". "Who believes in the Son, has eternal life". However, living in full human conditions till the end, till the cross and without assurance, he kept confidence: " Father I give back my breath, my life is in your hands" We can just follow Peter and say; "To whom can we turn, O Lord, only you has the word of eternal life"

Alice Goumbautt, January 1998

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