Marriage

Adapted from Our Orthodox Christian Faith by Athanasios S. Frangopoulos (Brotherhood of Theologians).

Marriage as a Sacrament is a sacred and holy act. It is based on the natural bond which the mutual consent of those (the man and the woman) who enter into marriage create. This natural bond becomes sacred and spiritual when it is sanctified and elevated to the dignity of a sacrament with the ceremony and prayers of the Church.

The natural bond - and the natural union of man and woman - is also of God for the growth and multiplication of the human race, as it is mentioned in one of the prayers of the Marriage Service: "It is Thy will that there should be lawful marriage and the begetting of children". This, too, was understood by Adam, the first man, who when he saw Eve, who was fashioned by God Himself from Adam's rib, said by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "This (the woman) now is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her husband. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:23-24).

And of course it was God Who united the first couple and Who celebrated, in a sense, their marriage in Paradise with the blessing which He gave to both, to the man and the woman: "Increase and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it" (Genesis 1:28) .

Our Saviour elevated marriage to a Sacrament in the New Testament through his presence at the marriage in Cana of Gallilee, and with all that He said about the indissolubility of marriage to the Pharisees who tempted Him. What did He say to them? "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father ..." (and the rest which was mentioned above as having been said by Adam when he saw Eve.) And Christ added in speaking to the Pharisees: "Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:4-6).