One thing that I find interesting and perhaps important is that the Presbyterians and nearly all other protestant churches consider only baptism and communion to be Sacraments. So from a Catholic, Orthodox, and maybe even Episcopal perspective, I see the importance of strictly defining marriage. But if marriage is not a sacrament, then it seems to me that perhaps it is part of a more flexible cultural tradition for Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists, and others who adhere to the two Sacrament view.
Obviously, the question of sin is separate and apart from the question of whether marriage is a sacrament. But, I am firmly in need of as much reconciliation and grace as God will provide to someone as unworthy as myself. So, I’m pretty cautious about casting stones.
If you have a good handle on the big picture of protestant theological thought, I would really appreciate an explanation of whether the sacrament designation matters. And, how one is to compare one sinner as against another (for I am certainly a sinner).
I don't know whether this will help answer your question, but consider that the Catholic Church teaches that Sacramental Marriage builds on natural marriage. So it didn't acquire it's "definition" when it was elevated to sacramental dignity (in the sense of a specific ritual content); it has always had its basic definition, which is knowable to natural reason.
Cardinal Carlo Caffara, one of the 5 traditionalist or "anti-Kasper" cardinals who wrote that famous book, makes this essential point:
Link to SOURCE, about 2/5 of he way down the page.
"The first dimension of the anthropological question is the following: it is well known that according to Catholic teaching the sacrament of marriage coincides with natural marriage. I think that there can no longer be any theological doubt about the coinciding of the two... "Now what the Church meant and means by “natural marriage” has been demolished in contemporary culture. If I may put it this way, the “matter” has been removed from the sacrament of marriage. "Theologians, canonists, and pastors are rightly asking about the faith-sacrament relationship of marriage. But there is a more radical problem. Those who are asking for sacramental marriage, are they capable of natural marriage? Has there been such devastation, not of their faith but of their humanity, that they are no longer capable of marriage?" |
This is stunning. Caffara says that we are not only losing our marital "sacramentality," we are losing our humanity. The human, natural aspect of marriage has been eroded right out of the culture.