As compared with the priesthood, marriage is a lowly state. It is a matter of common ordinary life. The effect of the Sacrament on it is not the originating of a new super natural life, but the sanctification of that which lies on the natural plane. Yet St. Paul magnifies Christian marriage in a unique phrase; he compares it to the union of Christ with His Church and adds, "This is a great sacrament: but I speak in Christ and in the Church" (Eph. v. 25, 32). There is a special fitness in the elevation of the natural contract to the dignity of a sacrament, on account of its great importance and universal influence. Christ blessed the propagation of the species under the New Dispensation, in order to counterbalance the curse pronounced in Genesis. The Sacrament of Matrimony, though it does not transmit supernatural life to the offspring, is a guarantee of that blessing to follow, and of the graces that will make children into members of Christ's kingdom. A special blessing was further needed, as the conditions of the married life had been made more onerous than before. Matrimony was restored to its pristine integrity, and made one and indissoluble. The corruption and hard hearts of the Jews, and their fall below the divine ideal had introduced polygamy and divorce, but "from the beginning it was not so" (Matt. xix. 8). Happy is the generation which receives this word! Pray God to enlighten the minds of so-called Christians who receive it not.
