Thursday, October 29, 2015

Marriage as "Mysterion" Experienced as Christian Faith (Perhaps Not Knowing It): The Weight of the Wedding Rings

Sacrament: Mysterion: The Whole Christ, Head and Body (The Weight of the Rings)[1]
                                               
  The reason why yes - no answer cannot be given concerning marriage and the family is its nature as the mystery of the person of Christ as Head and Body that appears to be instantiated as one of the seven sacraments. The large question will always be whether the marriage ever took place. Here is the pope on the plane back to the US:  “Another problem: faith. ‘Do I believe that this is forever? Yes, yes, yes. I believe.’ ‘But do you believe it? The preparation for a wedding: I think so often that to become a priest there‘s a preparation for 8 years, and then, it’s not definite, the Church can take the clerical state away from you. But, for something lifelong, they do four courses!  Four times… Something isn’t right. It’s something the Synod has to deal with: how to do preparation for marriage. It’s one of the most difficult things.”[2]





[1] Karol Wojtyla, “The Jeweler’s Shop:” “The jeweler examined the workmanship, weighed the ring for a long time in his finger, and looked into my eyes. For a while he was reading the date of our wedding, engraved inside the ring. Again he looked into my eyes, put the ring on the scales… then said, ‘This ring does not weigh anything; the needle does not move from zero and I cannot make it show ever a milligram. Your husband must be alive, in which case neither of your rings, taken separately will weigh anything – only both together will register. My jeweler’s scales have his peculiarity, that they weigh not the metal but man’s entire being and fate.’ Ashamed, I took the ring back and left the shop without a word. I think, though, that he followed me with his eyes;” The Collected Plays and Writings on Theater, Karol Wojtyla, University of California Press, Berkley (1987) 297-298.
[2] “Inside the Vatican,” October 2015, 47.

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