Pregledni rad

Contemporary Theology of Marriage and Family

Anton Tamarut ; Katolički bogoslovni fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Sažetak

Contemporary theology of marriage and family are primarily concerned with the social and cultural transformation that is also effecting religious life, and switching from the static understanding of the order of things to a dynamic and evolutionary one. When it comes to marriage, this cultural and social transformation has distanced itself from understanding it as primarily biological and juridical unity towards understanding it in an interpersonal, spiritual, and existential way. Instead of expressing the truth and contents of marriage in Neo-Scholastic and juridical terms, this new understanding uses Biblical and personalistic categories and expressions, such as: marriage covenant, intimate community of marital life and marital love, marital friendship, communion of life, etc. The specificity of marital communion is found in its global character. Marital love consists of totality which includes all constituents of the person. Marriage and family are the »community of love«. However, love that is in the centre of a marriage cannot be understood in a superficial sentimental way. The fundamental dimension of the Christian love is agape, i.e. adherence to the other and his/her good, and it is based on the free decision of the will. Agape includes faithfulness and perseveres when the »fickle« eros abandons those who love each other. Following the Second Vatican Council, this article reflects on marriage and family in light of the general call to holiness. As the »community of love« marriage and family are at the same time a gift and a mission, a special place and way of God’s revelation and the human being’s (lack of) faith, God’s discourse and the human being’s response. Newer theology reflects on marriage and family primarily in the perspective and through the dynamics of the history of salvation, through the order of creation and redemption, while pointing out their iconological, Trinitarian, Christological, ecclesiological, Eucharistic, and missionary dimensions. In that context, theology of the image of God is considered to be of key importance in understanding marriage and family. The intimate communion of the husband and wife is made, through Christ, a sign, i.e. a sacrament of his love towards and faithfulness to the Church (cf. Eph 5:25-32). Through his unique relation of love and tenderness towards the Church, Christ enters into the life communion of the husband and wife and takes an effective residence within it. Through the sacrament of marriage Christian spouses signify the mystery of unity and fertile love between Christ and the Church (cf. Eph 5:32) and take part in it. Both the Church and marriage live primarily of the Eucharist (Matrimonium de Eucharistia). In the Eucharistic sacrifice, the re-enactment of the Covenant that Christ established with his Church, the marital covenant between spouses is purified, renewed, and deepened, so that their marital life might be »in memory of Christ«. Marriage is an Eucharistic institution, an exemplary lifestyle for imitation Christi, for martyrium, and for »love until the end«. The marital love is not exhausted in the communion of marital spouses, but it is instead directed towards procreation and education of children. Marriage is, therefore, directed towards family, »the intimate community of life and love«. The »inter-Trinitarian communion« is the model and the principle of the »family communion«. The family as a home Church (Ecclesia domestica) is becoming ecclesiologically more and more important. Namely, it is a community in which all three basic tasks of the Church are lived out: testimonial proclamation of the Word of God, celebration of Triune God through common prayer and home liturgy, and service in love. The family face of the Church and Church’s face of family are mutually related. Namely, the family is a special living and ecclesial space in which prophetic, priestly, and kingly dignity and mission are lived out. According to the Second Vatican Council, the Christian family has a mission to reveal to everyone »Christ’s living presence in the world, and the genuine nature of the Church. This the family will do by the mutual love of the spouses, by their generous fruitfulness, their solidarity and faithfulness, and by the loving way in which all members of the family assist one another« (GS 48). Family is, therefore, called to give hope to the world and to help the Church to realise its true, family nature as much as possible.

Ključne riječi

marriage; family; covenant; the image of God; love; Eucharist; home Church

Hrčak ID:

147992

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/147992

Datum izdavanja:

28.10.2015.

Podaci na drugim jezicima: hrvatski

Posjeta: 4.397 *