As I pray most of you know, there are seven Sacraments in the Church, and so we have two more to finish our reflections on the Sacraments. These final two sacraments called Sacraments at the Service of Communion because they are directed towards the salvation of others. If they contribute to our personal salvation, it is through service to others that they do so. These two sacraments confer a particular mission in the Church and serve to build up the People of God. The most obvious of these sacraments is Holy Orders, but we are going to save that for next weekend. The one that many people do not think about as being directed toward the salvation of others is Matrimony.

“The matrimonial covenant, by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life, is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament” (Code of Canon Law, canon 1055 §1).

As we can see from the above quote the primary “other” toward which salvation is directed is to one’s spouse. As I tell couples when I prepare them for marriage, it is their primary job to make each other holy. Yet it is not only towards each other that spouse’s salvation efforts are directed. Next comes the salvation of any children that the married couple may be blessed with. Note well, it is not just having children that Catholic couples are to be open to having, they also have a serious responsibility for the education of their children. This education is NOT primarily the “three R’s” rather the primary education that parents are responsible for is the formation of Faith in their children. This involves teaching their children their prayers (it is still shocking to me how many kids making their first Penance do not know the Our Father and Hail Mary). But of course our faith is not knowing a lot of facts about Jesus, rather it is about having a living relationship with Jesus. Parents have a serious responsibility to pray with their children on a regular, if not daily, basis. It should go without saying parents need to bring their children to Mass EVERY SUNDAY and HOLY DAY of obligation. Cheerleading, football, basketball, or any other activity is NO excuse for missing Mass. Parents who do not bring their children to Mass commit two mortal sins, first the sin of not keeping the Lord’s Day Holy themselves, but also the sin of depriving their children of the proper celebration of the Lord’s Day.

Finally, Marriage is also directed towards the salvation of those around the married couple. We live in a society where the true nature of marriage has been denied and deformed. Instead of seeing marriage as a permanent, faithful, and fruitful union between a man and a woman, society has distorted marriage as being temporary – for only as long as it is enjoyable for me –, something that can be open to other intimate relationships, and not open to the gift of children.

The Christian Marriage is a living icon of the dynamic life of the Blessed Trinity, and Christ’s relationship with His Bride, the Church. As the Father pours out as a gift all that He is (not just what He has) to His Beloved, the Son, and the Son accepts everything from His Father, rejecting nothing, and then pours out all that He is as a gift back to the Father, so that this mutual exchange is so perfect that it is fruitful, spirating the Holy Spirit, so the husband is called to give his very self, totally as a gift to his wife, and the wife receives all that her husband gives her and then gives all that she is back to her husband, who rejects nothing that she offers him. And the fruitfulness of their mutual love is often children. In terms of Christ’s relationship with His Bride, the Church, we see the four “goods” of marriage; Christ has a permanent relationship with the Church, He will never abandon Her. Christ is perfectly faithful the Church, He has no other “lovers.” Christ perfectly works towards making the Church Holy, as seen by His giving His very self as a sacrifice on the Cross to save the Church from sin and death. The fruitfulness of Christ’s love for the Church is seen in its growth throughout the world and time.