Marriage and the Eucharist

The celebration and fulfilment of the Covenant thus take place in the sacraments. This is distinctively true when we speak of the Eucharist, (cf. Presbyterorum Ordinis, 5), yet marriage, "intimately bound" to the Eucharist (Familiaris Consortio, 57), is connected in a particular way to the Covenant. The old Covenant expressed itself in the sign of human marriage, but the reality of Christian marriage is inhabited, transfigured, by the New Covenant. In the Apostolic Exhortation Familiaris Consortio, dedicated to the family, following the Synod of 1980, I emphasized the necessity of "discovering and deepening this relationship" (no. 57). Your pilgrimage to Rome gives me the opportunity to open up some paths of investigation for you to explore.

The Eucharist makes the Covenant accessible to us, as it makes accessible both the gift and him who gives himself: the perfect sacrament of the Covenant, the Eucharist is the mystery of communion, of unity, with respect for each individual: "He who eats my flesh and drinks by blood abides in me and I in him" (Jn 6:56). "As... I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me" (Jn 6:57). It reveals the communion of the Father and Son in the Holy Spirit, drawing in the faithful, who thus find themselves in communion with one another (1 Cor 10:17). For in the flesh of Christ the work of communion in the spirit is accomplished: "But whoever is joined to the Lord, becomes one spirit with him." (1 Cor 6:17). The fulfilment of the Covenant in the Eucharist is echoed in the conjugal alliance. Is not the sacrament of marriage also a communion in which unity in the flesh leads to the communion of the spirit? Like Christ's Covenant, the conjugal covenant leads the spouses to live faithfully "in tenderness and mercy" and "in justice and in right" (Hosea 2:21). "Marriage of the baptised thus becomes the real symbol of the new and eternal Covenant, sealed in the blood of Christ. The Spirit, which the Lord pours out, gives them a new heart and makes the man and the woman capable of loving one another as Christ has loved us” (Familiaris Consortio, no. 13). “It is in this sacrifice of the new and eternal Covenant that the Christian couple finds the flowing spring which inwardly models and constantly vivifies their conjugal covenant” (Familiaris Consortio, no. 57). From the Lord, they learn to love “to the end”, giving and pardoning.

And as he himself lives out an indissoluble Covenant, they will learn from him to be flawlessly faithful to their word and to their chosen life. Not only does the Covenant inspire the life of the couple, it fully portakes in that life, injecting its own energy in the lives of the spouses: it "models" their love from within: they love one another not only as Christ loved, but mysteriously, with the very love of Christ, as his Spirit is given to them... in the measure in which they let themselves be "modelled" by him (cf. Gal 2:25: Eph 4:23). At Mass, through the ministry of the priest, the Spirit of the Lord makes the body and blood of the Lord from bread and wine; in and through the sacrament of marriage, the Spirit can make the very love of the Lord from conjugal love: if the couple let themselves be transformed, they can love with the "new heart" promised by the New Covenant (cf. Jer 31:31; Familiaris Consortio, no. 20). "Call of the body and of the instinct, strength of feeling and of affectivity, aspiration of the spirit and of the will" (Familiaris Consortio, 13), by the gift of the Lord man's love can be totally illuminated by the Source of love and can really show forth the new and eternal Covenant which shines in him. We are certainly very far here from a simple instinctive impulse or a simple temporary accord tied to immediate interests to which many people today tend to reduce this gift of the Lord which is love!

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To the members of the "Foyers des Equipes Notre-Dame" (23 September 1982) - Speech

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