Diocesan Resources
The Sacramentality of Marriage in the Fathers by Dr. John C. Cavadini (2006)
The Sacramentality of Marriage in the Fathers by John C. Cavadini, Ph.D., Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame, October 4-5, 2006
On the one hand, the patristic period was not, as a whole, a period characterized by sustained reflection on the sacramentality of marriage. The idea of marriage as a “sacrament,” in the more technical sense of the term we find developed in medieval and contemporary theologians, had not explicitly arisen. On the other hand, there was a continuous appreciation of marriage since the time of Jesus himself as we can see reflected in the canonical Gospels, and there can be found among the Fathers increasing attention to the meaning of Christian marriage, culminating in the late fourth and early fifth century reflections of John Chrysostom in the East, and of Augustine in the West. We have to be careful not to underestimate the contribution of the Fathers even if they did not speak the technical language of later ages. Their rich use of imagery and analogy in the context of exhortation and pastoral counsel is the basis for later developments and it can still serve as a resource for us.
Christian marriage builds on the natural community of husband and wife, predicated on sexual difference for the purpose of procreation, and transforms it into an ecclesial community (a “domestic church,” to use later language) in which the spousal love of Christ for the Church is authentically both represented and encountered. The paper closes with a brief reflection on the potential that this Augustinian view may have to offer a useful complementarity to the Theology of the Body espoused by Pope John Paul II.