Joseph Cardinal Höffner CHRISTIAN SOCIAL ... - Ordo Socialis

of the years 1789 to 1804 as a short-lived 'transitional law' ; but its consequences are clearly
perceptible up until the present, and not least in marriage law. Thus, for example, that 1792
principle concerning the break-up of marriages found its way into the 1938 German (National
Socialist) marriage law.
Although liberalistic individualism, at least in its consistent ideology, had undermined the
institution of marriage, its adherents nevertheless had soon to admit that one cannot entrust
the relations between man and woman to caprice. This explains why the state, which the individualistic
conception of society opposes as an unlimited power to the individual, claimed the
drafting of marriage law for itself and subjected the institution of marriage to its laws. It is
characteristic that under the influence of the Enlightenment Joseph II declared in his marriage
decree of January 16,1783 that marriage receives „its essence, force, and definition solely and
entirely from our sovereign laws,“ a conception that has gained ground steadily in the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries. 60
2. Today, every institution is considered suspect and rejected by man as a source of restriction,
an obligation opposed by the system, and a fetter. Hostility towards institutions is connected
with the ideology of unbridled emancipation. But whoever destroys the institution delivers
marriage and family to the 'administrative' apparatus. The rule of functionaries, in
whose hands the apparatus is a supple tool, then takes the place of the personal love and authority
of the parents. Exaggerated emancipation leads to manipulation. In the face of all attempts
to relativize marriage and entrust it to caprice, the Christian faith holds fast to the essential
form of this institution. „No human law“ it says in the encyclical Rerum-novarum,
„can take away the original natural right of a man to marry or in any way impose limits of the
principle purpose of marriage ordained by God's authority from the beginning.“ Marriage is
„older than the state; one therefore which must have its own rights and duties which depend
not at all upon the state“ (n. 1o).
§ 10 Marriage as Sacrament
1. In marriage a mystery of the divine work of salvation shines forth. God has saved and sanctified
people, „not merely as individuals without any mutual bonds,“ but has made a covenant
with them and made them „a single people“ (Lumen gentium, 9). In order to express his utmost
love for us, God calls his covenant a marriage covenant: „On that day, says the Lord, she
shall call me 'My husband'... I will espouse you to me forever“ (Hos 2:18). „I swore an oath to
you and entered into a covenant with you; you became mine, says the Lord God“ (Ez 16:8).
„For he who has become your husband is your maker“(Is 54:5).
Already in the Old Covenant, marriage was a symbol of the love of God for the people espoused
to him. Jesus Christ elevated marriage to a sacrament of the New Covenant, i.e. made
it an effective sign of grace, so that among the baptized there can be no true marriage that is
not sacramental. Bride and groom administer the sacrament to one another by contracting
marriage with one another. In the sacrament of marriage, the Easter mystery of the love of the
Lord for his bride, the Church, becomes manifest: „This is a great foreshadowing,“ writes St.
Paul, „I mean that it refers to Christ and the Church“ (Eph. 5:32).In his love for his wife, the
husband should emulate Christ. In her love for her husband, on the other hand, the wife represents.
the Church which loves the Lord. In their marriage, husband and wife encounter Christ,
the bridegroom of the Church, who remains with them in the sacrament of marriage „so that,
just as he loved the Church and handed Himself over on her behalf, the spouses may love
each other with perpetual fidelity through mutual self-bestowa1“ (Gaudium et spes, 48). As
the Bride of Christ, the Church stands under the symbol of the woman. 61
60 Ibid, 348£.
61 In rendering present the sacrifice of the cross in the Holy Mass. the priest acts in the person of Christ. If we
treat the mysterious relationship 'Christ - Bride of Christ. with seriousness ecclesiologically, we shall realize that
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