As we journey through Lent, we reflect on the New Covenant sealed in Jesus’ blood.  In light of this, our Church Teaching post this month focuses on covenants.  What is a covenant? How is marriage a covenant?  What are the vows of this particular covenant?

In Hebrew, the word for covenant best translates to “family bond.”  It is like a holy contract that makes the two involved parties into family.  You might sign a contract with an electrician, but no matter how satisfied you are with his work, you probably wouldn’t adopt him into your family forever.  But when God made covenants with men like Adam, Abraham, Noah, and David, His goal was to bring mankind into His family.  These men all failed to remain faithful to their covenants, and “in fact, sacred history leads us to conclude that only God keeps His covenant promises (Hahn, p. 26).”  To bind us into His family once and for all, God became man as Jesus, and He Himself made the New and Everlasting Covenant in His blood on behalf of mankind.  

Marriage is a special type of covenant made between a man and a woman until death parts them.  Up on the altar, these two parties become a family, because “covenant creates kinship (Hahn, p. 130).”  A married couple- even before they have their first child, and even if they never have a single child- are a family by nature of their covenantal vows.

What, then, are the vows of the marital covenant?  This isn’t God’s covenant with Noah or Abraham- we didn’t vow not to flood the earth again if our spouse was unfaithful (Gen. 9), or to make our spouse’s descendants as numerous as the sands of the shore (Gen. 17).  Here’s what we did vow in our marital covenant (hopefully the first part of this sounds familiar from last month’s post… and all of it from your own wedding):

“Christopher and Caitrin, have you come here to enter into Marriage without coercion, freely and wholeheartedly (fully)?  Are you prepared, as you follow the path of Marriage, to love and honor each other for as long as you both shall live (faithfully)? Are you prepared to accept children lovingly from God and to bring them up according to the law of Christ and his Church (fruitfully)?”

“We are.”

“Since it is your intention to enter into the covenant of Holy Matrimony, join your right hands, and declare your consent before God and his Church.”

“I, Christopher, take you, Caitrin, for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward… for better, for worse… for richer, for poorer… in sickness and in health…until death do us part.”

“I, Caitrin, take you, Christopher, for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward… for better, for worse… for richer, for poorer… in sickness and in health…until death do us part.” (“The Order of Celebrating Matrimony, #60”)

If you were married in the Church, these are the vows of the covenant you made with your spouse on your wedding day.  There’s a good reason Catholics don’t write their own vows.  The Church has already clearly defined in the above vows what a Christian married couple should strive for every day.  Of course, every married couple is unique and will have their own traditions within their marriage, but the covenant bonding every Christian married couple looks the same.

OK, now that we have talked about what marriage is, what our mission is as married people, and how marriage is a covenant… we are finally ready to start exploring the above vows one at a time.  Next month, that is. 😉

References:

Hahn, Scott. Hail, Holy Queen: The Mother of God in the Word of God. New York: Doubleday, 2001.

International Commission on English in the Liturgy. The Order of Celebrating Matrimony. 2nd ed. Towota, NJ: Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 2016.

The Holy Bible, RSV- Catholic Edition. Charlotte, NC: St. Benedict Press, 2009.