St. Thomas suspended his writing
of the Summa Theologiae in December of 1273. He had just begun the treatise on the sacraments.
After completing the sections on baptism and the Eucharist, he put his pen down just a few
questions into his discussion of penance. St. Thomas then died a few months later. As a result,
we do not have directly from St. Thomas his final teaching regarding marriage and the
other sacraments. What we do have, however, are the recollections of his students who,
after St. Thomas' death, collected the insights of their teacher from class and lecture notes
and finished Aquinas's master work posthumously. They compiled what is called the supplement
to the Summa Theologiae, which fills the last parts of the Summa that St. Thomas had left
incomplete. It is from the supplement then, from the recollections of Aquinas's students that
we can piece together St. Thomas' doctrine of marriage. We'll highlight a few features of that
doctrine in this video.
When over the course of his teaching career, St. Thomas spoke about marriage.
He was careful to point out its identity and integrity as both a natural phenomenon
and as a Christian sacrament. As regards the naturalness of marriage, Aquinas noted that man
and woman inclined naturally toward marrying not in some uncontrollable necessary movement
like the upward movement of fire, but in a rational movement toward a good that men and
women bring about through deliberation and consent. Indeed, all virtuous acts result
from a natural inclination of this kind.
The human inclination to marriage Aquinas taught seeks two primary ends. The first,
which is the principle end of marriage, is the begetting and education of children. For this,
men and women come together to generate new life and they stay together to provide their
offspring education not only in survival, but also in virtue. Aquinas noted that it is for
the benefit of the child's education, that he be certain of his parents' identity and virtue.
To this end, a father and mother bind themselves together and provide a home for their child in
which over many years he can confidently develop daily with his parents the practice of virtue.
The second end that marriage seeks,
naturally, is the cooperation of man and woman in the creation and flourishing of households.
Because the human person is a social and political animal, Aquinas taught that it
is natural that human beings form societies to pursue and enjoy ever-increasing goods.
The most fundamental and natural of these societies is the family. In the family,
man and woman cooperate intimately where, around a common hearth, they share the whole of life,
producing and enjoying together the necessities of life. For Aquinas, marriage unites these two
natural ends into one seamless life of the family. Where the ends of father, mother,
and child are met all at once.
Now, where as Aquinas recognize the naturalness of marriage, he did not hold that each man and
woman is bound by nature to marry. Most do marry of course, and that is good,
but because the flourishing of human society depends on some individuals
pursuing the higher life of contemplation, Aquinas noted that the overall good of families
requires that some individuals forego the goods of marriage and dedicate themselves
instead to the contemplative pursuit of truth. For Aquinas, however, the contemplative need of some
to forgo marriage in no way denigrates marriage, nor does it cast a suspicious eye on the corporeal
and even carnal goods enjoyed in marriage. Not to be overshadowed by contemplation, marriage remains
both necessary and good for the flourishing of society and Aquinas insisted that it should not
in any way be thought to harbor or foster evil. To drive this point home, Aquinas stressed that,
when entered into by two Christians, marriage not only serves their earthly needs
but also supplies merit for their salvation.
We turn then to St. Thomas' teaching on the sacrament of marriage. Throughout his teaching
career, St. Thomas repeatedly drew on St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians, chapter five,
to highlight the sacramental character of marriage. In his letter, St. Paul
confirms that the union of man and woman is a profound mystery, a profound sacramentum
that refers to the union of Christ in his Church. Accordingly, Aquinas taught that, as a sacrament,
marriage is a remedy for sin and a cause of grace for the spouses which conforms
them to the passion of Christ, not according to its pain, but according to its charity. Whereby
Christ lovingly suffered for the Church, which was united to him as his spouse. Marriage therefore
enables the Christian husband and Christian wife, by grace, to love each other, salvifically. Not as
the savior of the other, but in imitation of the Savior of both. Bestowing on each other the love
with which Christ loves the Church.
In the graced union of matrimony, which unites man and woman in mind and body. The Christian husband
and wife enjoy the goods of children, mutual fidelity and the indivisibility of their union
in which the abiding grace of the sacrament takes root. Regarding marriage, the supplement also
collects St. Thomas' teachings on consent, on the sins against marriage and on the impediments
to marriage. It's suffices for us here to say that Aquinas' doctrine in each of these areas
help to advance not only the Church's theology of marriage, but also her marriage law. Even today,
the catechism of the Catholic Church and the code of Canon law bear the marks of Aquinas' teaching.
The Church's enduring belief in and practice of marriage remains indebted to St. Thomas'
deep appreciation of marriage. As, in the words of the second Vatican council,
"A natural partnership of the whole of life that has been raised by Christ the Lord to
the dignity of a sacrament". St. Thomas' teaching helps us to appreciate, to promote
and indeed to love the Church's teaching on the mystery of marriage.
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