Courtney McGrailThe Church teaches that man and woman were created for one another, writes Cathal Barry
Sacred Scripture begins with the creation of man and woman in the image and likeness of God and concludes with a vision of “the wedding-feast of the Lamb”. Scripture speaks throughout of marriage and its “mystery”, its institution and the meaning God has given it, its origin and its end, its various realisations throughout the history of salvation, the difficulties arising from sin and its renewal “in the Lord” in the New Covenant of Christ and the Church.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the vocation to marriage “is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator”.
“Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, some sense of the greatness of the matrimonial union exists in all cultures,” the document says.
God who created man out of love, the Catechism continues, also calls him to love the fundamental and innate vocation of every human being. “For man is created in the image and likeness of God who is himself love.”
Since God created man and woman, the Church teaches that their mutual love “becomes an image of the absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man”.
Scripture affirms that man and woman were created for one another: “It is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen 2:18).
Experiences
The Catechism notes that every man experiences evil around him and within himself. “This experience makes itself felt in the relationships between man and woman. Their union has always been threatened by discord, a spirit of domination, infidelity, jealousy and conflicts that can escalate into hatred and separation. This disorder can manifest itself more or less acutely, and can be more or less overcome according to the circumstances of cultures, eras, and individuals, but it does seem to have a universal character,” the document states.
According to Church teaching, “the disorder we notice so painfully does not stem from the nature of man and woman, nor from the nature of their relations, but from sin”. Nevertheless, the Church teaches that “the order of creation persists, though seriously disturbed”.
“To heal the wounds of sin, man and woman need the help of the grace that God in his infinite mercy never refuses them. Without his help man and woman cannot achieve the union of their lives for which God created them,” the Catechism says.