Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.31823/d.26.3.3
“Sacramentum hoc magnum est.” On Some Aspects of the Fruitfulness of the Sacramental Grace of Marriage
Sani Gilja
Boris Vulić
orcid.org/0000-0002-3517-2502
; Catholic Faculty of Theology in Đakovo J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Đakovo, Croatia
Abstract
The sacrament of marriage is the foundation of Christian family from which it receives special strength to become a place of grace for society and the world. Understanding marriage exclusively as the freedom of married partners corrodes the seriousness of marital love from within, which becomes weak against even the slightest challenges. In the background of such an understanding lies the glorification of individual’s ego, which entails a negative attitude towards the traditional understanding of Christian marriage. The article shows that the celebration of the sacrament of marriage, which includes all the good and noble that a culture has introduced as a sign of the social and legal importance of marriage, places the nature of marriage in a completely new sacramental and sacred context. This horizon reveals an essential internal connection of marriage with all sacraments of the Church, especially the Eucharist. Continually strengthened by the Eucharist, the sacramental grace of marriage becomes active and fruitful not only in the form of eros, but mostly as an agape, as love that invites a person to die to themselves in order to truly realize oneself in marriage and family communion. The article seeks to help Christian spouses in modern temptations, to cooperate more seriously with the grace of the sacrament of marriage, with full awareness of the theological identity of a Christian family, thus becoming a unique and indispensable sign of Christ’s mystical love for the Church.
Keywords
the sacrament of marriage; marriage; family; Eucharist; holiness; mission
Hrčak ID:
207307
URI
Publication date:
24.10.2018.
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