Cathal Barry
The Church teaches that a bride and groom should prepare themselves for their marriage by receiving the Sacrament of Penance, writes Cathal Barry
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that, in the Latin Rite, the celebration of marriage between two Catholic faithful normally takes place during Mass, because of the connection of all the sacraments with the Paschal mystery of Christ.
In the Eucharist, according to Church teaching, the memorial of the New Covenant is realised, the New Covenant in which Christ has united himself for ever to the Church, his “beloved bride” for whom he gave himself up.
“It is therefore fitting that the spouses should seal their consent to give themselves to each other through the offering of their own lives by uniting it to the offering of Christ for his Church made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice, and by receiving the Eucharist so that, communicating in the same Body and the same Blood of Christ, they may form but ‘one body’ in Christ.”
“Inasmuch as it is a sacramental action of sanctification, the liturgical celebration of marriage… must be, per se, valid, worthy, and fruitful” (Familiaris Consortio).
It is therefore appropriate, the Catechism notes, for the bride and groom to prepare themselves for the celebration of their marriage by receiving the Sacrament of Penance.
According to Latin tradition, the spouses as ministers of Christ’s grace mutually confer upon each other the Sacrament of Matrimony by expressing their consent before the Church.
In the tradition of the Eastern Churches, the priests (bishops or presbyters) are witnesses to the mutual consent given by the spouses, but for the validity of the sacrament their blessing is also necessary.
“The various liturgies abound in prayers of blessing and epiclesis asking God’s grace and blessing on the new couple, especially the bride,” the Catechism states.
“In the epiclesis of this sacrament the spouses receive the Holy Spirit as the communion of love of Christ and the Church. The Holy Spirit is the seal of their covenant, the ever available source of their love and the strength to renew their fidelity.”
The Church teaches that the parties to a marriage covenant are a baptised man and woman, free to contract marriage, which means:
– not being under constraint;
– not impeded by any natural or ecclesiastical law.
The Church holds the exchange of consent between the spouses to be the indispensable element that “makes the marriage”. If consent is lacking there is no marriage, according to the Catechism.
The consent consists in a “human act by which the partners mutually give themselves to each other”: “I take you to be my wife” – “I take you to be my husband.” This consent that binds the spouses to each other finds its fulfilment in the two “becoming one flesh”.
The consent must be an act of the will of each of the contracting parties, the Church teaches, free of coercion or grave external fear.
“No human power can substitute for this consent. If this freedom is lacking the marriage is invalid,” the Catechism states.