

Chapter 21. The Sacrament of Marriage • 283
THE PURPOSES OF MARRIAGE
The marriage covenant, by which a man and woman
form with each other an intimate communion of life and
love, has been founded and endowed with its own spe-
cial laws by the Creator. By its very nature it is ordered
to the good of the couple, as well as to the generation
and education of children. Christ the Lord raised mar-
riage between the baptized to the dignity of a sacrament.
—CCC, no. 1660
The
Catechism
teaches that Christ’s grace in the Sacrament of Marriage
protects the essential purposes of marriage: the good of the couple and
the generation and education of children. These purposes are protected
and fostered by the permanence of the marriage bond and the mutual
fidelity of the spouses.
“What God has joined together, no human being must separate”
(Mk 10:9). We have already noted that God’s plan for marriage involves
a permanent covenant embraced by the couple. The Church declares
every valid sacramental consummated marriage to be indissoluble, that
is, no one can dissolve the marriage bond.
The Sacrament obliges marital fidelity between the spouses. Love
has a definitive quality about it. It is more than a practical arrangement
or a temporary contract. Marital intimacy and the good of the children
require total fidelity to conjugal love. This flows from Christ’s own fidel-
ity to the Church, which he loved so much that he died for her. By their
mutual fidelity, the spouses continue to make present to each other the
love of Christ and lead each other to greater holiness through the grace
they receive from the Sacrament.
Married love is ordered to the good of the spouses and to the pro-
creation and education of children. These are the unitive and procreative
purposes of marriage. “By its very nature the institution of marriage and
married love is ordered to the procreation and education of the offspring
and it is in them that it finds its crowning glory” (CCC, no. 1652; GS,
no. 48). The fruitfulness of married love includes the moral, spiritual,