By JAMES MONTI
Later this year, as you may have already read, a revised edition of the Order of Celebrating Matrimony is going to be promulgated in the United States, featuring notably a new, more accurate translation of the Latin text revised according to the principles of the Holy See’s 2001 instruction Liturgiam Authenticam.
Additionally, the revised rite will allow for the first time in English-language celebrations of matrimony, when one or both of the spouses is Hispanic, the introduction of the centuries-old Hispanic custom of the lazo, also called the jugalis, a ribbon or cord, or veil, placed round about or over the two spouses during the wedding ceremony as a symbolic expression of the indissoluble bond that the sacrament confers upon the couple.
This observance is perhaps the most visually striking example of how over the centuries the Church through the liturgy of matrimony has stressed the nature of this sacrament as an unbreakable bond and a truly sacred vocation.
With all the mundane and even silly “wedding planning” that in recent decades has turned all too many Catholic marriage ceremonies into Hollywood-style spectacles, it is vital to rediscover and recover the sense of the sacred that permeated Catholic matrimony rites in the past. Recalling these time-honored liturgical expressions of the meaning and nature of matrimony has taken on a new urgency as we witness the fundamental doctrines regarding matrimony under attack to a degree never before seen in the Church’s history.
The afore-mentioned custom of the jugalis is mentioned as far back as the seventh century by the Spanish Church Father St. Isidore of Seville (+636), who expressly states its meaning as a symbolic reminder to the couple that they must never break their marital bond (De ecclesiasticis officiis, book 2, chapter 20, n. 7).
Over the centuries that followed, the practice took on a variety of forms from place to place in Spain, ranging from the white and purple ribbon Isidore describes to the use of a priest’s stole or cincture, or a veil draped across the couple kneeling before the altar. By the late 15th century a comparable custom had arisen in Bavaria and the Austrian Tyrol: the priest, after having the couple join their right hands, would have them exchange the words of matrimonial consent, after which he would place the ends of his stole over the couple’s joined hands, saying, “And I, by the authority of God, bind you together matrimonially, [Bridegroom’s Name] and [Bride’s Name], in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen” (Obsequiale Brixinense, 1493, fol. 44v — a liturgical book of Brixen in the Austrian Tyrol, what is now Bressanone, Italy).
In a ritual of Krakow, Poland, issued in 1591, the application of the priest’s stole to the marrying couple’s joined hands solemnizes the very moment when they exchange vows, the very moment when they become man and wife unto death:
“Afterward he [the priest] should tell them to join their right hands, which the minister should wrap with the end of his stole in the form of a cross, with his left hand superimposed, and he should order each of them to say after him wholly and with their agreement expressed the following words from the present, which constitute matrimony:
“First, therefore, he should recite to the bridegroom [for the latter to say]: I [Name] take you [Name] unto me for my wife; and I sacredly vow to you marital love, fidelity, and honor; and that I shall not forsake you, as long as I shall live. So help me God, and all his saints.
“Then he should similarly recite to the bride [for the latter to say]: I [Name] take you [Name] unto me for my husband; and I sacredly vow to you marital love, fidelity, honor, and obedience; and that I shall not forsake you, as long as I shall live. So help me God, and all his saints.”
After calling upon those present to bear witness to the couple’s exchange of vows, the priest declares, “What therefore God has joined, let no man sunder. And therefore the matrimony contracted between you I by the authority of the Catholic Church confirm and bless, in the name + of the Father, and + of the Son, and of the Holy + Spirit. Amen” (Agenda seu ritus caeremoniarum ecclesiasticarum ad uniformem ecclesiarum par universas provincias regni Poloniae usum, part one, Krakow, 1591, pp. 53-55).
The sacredness of marriage was visually emphasized in other aspects of the wedding rites as well. The rings were often exchanged and imparted with elaborate ritual actions laden with Trinitarian symbolism. In the marriage rite from a 14th-century ritual of the abbey of Saint-Victor in Paris, the rings and the bridegroom and bride themselves were not only sprinkled with holy water but also incensed. In the wedding ceremony from a 12th-century pontifical of the French Benedictine monastery of Lyre (Diocese of Evreux), the couple would prostrate themselves halfway down the church aisle and again before the altar, an observance resembling the prostration made by ordinands preparing to receive Holy Orders.
Over the years that follow a couple’s wedding, the children that God sends them are a living reminder of the indissolubility of marriage: These sons and daughters will live on forever, first in time and then in the next life, as an eternal testament to the marriage out of which they arose.
As we have seen, the Church through her liturgy reminds the marrying couple and prays earnestly that they may remain true to each other, true unto death. Such reminders and prayers are necessary because of the sad reality that there can arise in the heart of one of the spouses through temptation a disordered affection for someone who is not his or her spouse.
A Hermeneutic Of Certainty
It is both disturbing and frightening to see how quickly and all too easily a heretofore good man’s faith and reason can become unseated by the intoxicating wine of unlawful desire. The famous, or rather infamous, example of England’s King Henry VIII has been cited with sufficient frequency not to require further repetition here.
Oh, yes, we have all heard the clichés, the “sweet nothings” with which our culture has sought to clothe with respectability a man’s betrayal of his wife, a woman’s betrayal of her husband: “Love is better the second time around,” or, “At last he has found his soulmate.” Rather, he has lost God and everything that really matters.
Of late matters have been made worse by certain proposals made within the Church to validate some of these adulterous relationships if they can be shown to exhibit “love and fidelity.” But how can a relationship built on a foundation of betrayal ever be considered “loving and faithful”?
In regard to matrimony and other fundamental doctrines of our faith we need to reaffirm a “hermeneutic of certainty.” There is a need to dispel the impression that everything we thought we knew about being a faithful Catholic is about to change — that doctrines and “rules” suddenly don’t matter anymore — that much of what we have professed for centuries is now up for grabs or on the auction block.
To all the theological speculation about “re-negotiating” the Church’s settled teachings on marriage, divorce, adultery and fornication, there can be but one answer. There can be no such thing as a “development of doctrine” that changes the Ten Commandments or changes the Gospel. Once the Church, her Supreme Pontiffs and her ecumenical councils have determined that a doctrine is certain and immutable, there can be no turning back, no second thoughts.
In such cases Rome has indeed spoken and the case has indeed been settled, settled unto the end of time.
Notably the Church has consistently taught that the Sacrament of Matrimony is not conferred by the priest presiding at the rite but rather by the bride and bridegroom themselves by their exchange of consent. This aspect of the sacrament has a timely lesson to teach in present-day debates about divorce and remarriage. It in a sense anticipates the important role that the laity have in defending the indissolubility of marriage. The laity should not hesitate to stand their ground in reaffirming the utter indissolubility of this sacrament.
This is certainly not about the laity wanting to make their own rules, or deciding for themselves what the Church is supposed to teach. Not in the least do faithful Catholics want to govern themselves, to be disobedient sheep irreverent to their pastors, to be sheep without shepherds. But they do have a right to live what the Church has already definitively taught, to teach it to their children, and to proclaim it in their state of life.
In this, as in so many other issues confronting us, it all comes down to what His Eminence Robert Cardinal Sarah has expressed so memorably — it is simply a matter of “God or nothing.”
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