The Christian Church is founded on the will of its divine Founder. This will has worked in the Church from the very beginning and will work “all the days until the end of the world” (Matt. 28:20). This same will, by giving the Church a religious life, gives it to her government. The law of the Church is based on this will and through it it acquires its meaning.
By founding His Church on earth, Jesus Christ did not leave her or hand over to her any collection of laws by which she would order her external life, but He pointed out and precisely determined the purpose of the Church, authorized her to use certain means for achieving this goal and showed her the way she should go in her activity, promising her His help.
Christ’s commandments constitute the principles on the basis of which the Church received her structure and developed her life in the world. On the same principles rests and from them, as from the original source, derives the right of the Church. These orders are contained in St. Writing of the New Testament and as an expression of the divine will, they are unchangeable and universally binding on the whole Church and constitute its basic laws. Such are the commandments for the ministry of the apostles (Matt. 18:18; John 20:23), for their relations with each other (Mark 9:34, etc.), for St. Baptism and St. The Eucharist (Mark 16:16; Matthew 28:19; John 3: 5; Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11: 23-25), for marriage (Matthew 5:32; 19: 3), for the oath (Matt. 5:33), for the ecclesiastical court (Matt. 18, 15-17), for the reward for the priesthood (Luke 10, 7 – 12; Matt. 10, 10 – 15; John 12, 5, 6 ; 13, 29), etc.
The teachings of the Orthodox Church unconditionally and invariably define marriage as a sacrament or “secret.” At first glance, such a definition may seem strange, as marriage is practiced by both Christians and non-Christians, including atheists, who have probably never heard the meaning of the word “sacrament.” Man is born, marries, has children and dies. These are the laws of nature that God has established and blessed, and yet marriage is viewed in a special way by the Church. The special blessing she gives to married men and women is called the sacrament. Why is this so?
The very idea of marriage as a sacrament suggests that man is not just a being with physiological, psychological and social functions, but also a resident of the Kingdom of God – in other words, throughout his life, and especially in the crucial moments in it, there are eternal values as well as God Himself.
The word “mystery” must be understood as it was understood by the ancients, ie it defines “every action of the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Apostle Paul also reveals its Christological dimension – the mystery is the mystery of Christ or the “great” the mystery of godliness “(1 Tim. 3:16). However, the action of God’s grace cannot be limited in quantity, nor can the actions of the Holy Spirit be limited to a specific number of sacraments. In the Church everything is a sacred sacrament in it there is a gracious character, everything – from the smallest to the largest, because everything is immersed in the unspoken holiness of the sinless God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ.
As the Church, the God-man embraces all worlds, for all worlds are His creation, because “… all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:16). He is the Creator of all creation, of all things, “He is the head of the body… Of the church” (Col. 1:18). Therefore, in Him, the all-encompassing, is salvation, and deification, and all the most perfect, which is necessary for the human being. This is what the holy Sacraments of His Church and all the holy virtues serve for. Today, the sacraments defined as sacraments in the Orthodox Church, which are only part of a large number of sacraments through which Christians receive the gracious gifts of St. Spirit, are the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, the Holy Sacrament of Anointing, the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, the Holy Sacrament of Penance, the Holy Sacrament of the Priesthood, the Holy Sacrament of Marriage and the Sacrament of Anointing.
The sacraments impart to temporary things the dignity and value of the eternal. Through them the uncreated approaches man through the created. They combine external visible form with internal, invisible content. The visible side includes the substances used (bread, oil, water), prayers and actions (anointing, immersion). The invisible side is the mysterious acceptance of the gracious gifts of St. A spirit that is different for each sacrament. The sacrament is not just a sacrament, and the definition of a sacrament as a sacrament is incomplete and inaccurate. In this sense and with a properly performed sacrament, ie. if the external form is observed, it is possible that the invisible content is missing, ie. the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
The sacrament of Marriage, which is the subject of this exposition, is one of the sacraments which, along with the priesthood (ordination) and the consecration of the oil (holy oil), is not necessary for all.
This sacrament was established by God himself in paradise – “it is not good for man to be alone; to create a helper like him … ”(Gen. 2:18) and it was there, in paradise, that the first union of man and woman took place -“ God created the Lord from the rib taken from man, woman, and led her to therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they (both) shall be one flesh … ”(Gen. 2: 22-24). God blessed them by uniting them in marriage with the commandment, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it …” (Gen. 1:28).
Marriage is considered natural, so there is no word for “bachelor” in the Old Testament. The account of Eve’s creation (Gen. 2: 18-24) shows the uniqueness of the relationship between husband and wife, which serves as an image of the relationship between God and His people (Jer. 3; Ezek. 16; 1-3) and between Christ and His Church (Eph. 5: 22-33).
In the world, man does have a variety of talents and abilities – material, intellectual, emotional – but his earthly existence is limited by time. Therefore, “to be born of water and the Spirit” means for him to enter the realm of eternal life – because through Christ’s Resurrection this realm is already open and can be experienced and shared. Calling marriage a “secret”, St. Apostle Paul affirms that he has a place in the eternal kingdom. The husband becomes one being, one “flesh” with his wife – just as the Son of God has ceased to be only Himself, i.e. God, He also became man so that the community of His people could become His Body. This is why gospel accounts so often compare the Kingdom of God to a wedding feast that fulfills Old Testament prophecies about the wedding feast between God and Israel, the chosen people. This is the reason why true Christian marriage can only be something unique – not by virtue of some abstract law or moral precept, but precisely because it is the Mystery of the Kingdom of God, bringing man into eternal joy and eternal love.
As a mystery, or mystery, Christian marriage inevitably contradicts the practical, empirical reality of “fallen into sin” humanity. Therefore, he, like the Gospel itself, seems ideal. However, there is an extremely crucial difference between the “mystery” and the “ideal”. The sacrament is not some imaginary abstraction. The sacrament is an experiential experience in which man is not involved alone, but acts in communion with God. In the sacrament, human nature, without losing anything of its fullness, participates in the higher reality of the Spirit. In fact, as we said above, it becomes even more authentically human and fulfills its original purpose. The sacrament is a “transition” to real life; the sacrament represents the salvation of man. The sacrament is an open door to true, intact human nature.
Therefore, the sacrament is not magic. The Holy Spirit does not oppress human freedom, but frees man from the shackles of sinfulness. In the new life, the impossible becomes truly possible, as long as one is free to accept what God gives you. The same goes for marriage.
Photo: Wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna by Laurits Tuxen (1895, Hermitage)
