To be taught on Jan 18, 2020.
From Michael Ruse:
Metropolitan Hilarion discusses marriage not from the starting point of morality, law, customs, not even from its liturgical formation, because it is a mystery or sacrament. Like the Eucharist and other sacraments, we are changed by them. The liturgical hymns, psalms, and rites of marriage come from its mystical nature. Later sections on Formation, Betrothal, and Crowning can only follow from this essential reality.
Our modern understanding of marriage doesn’t seem to distinguish itself essentially from how pagans or Greco-Roman culture tended to view marriage as primarily a contract for benefiting society, a pretext for leveraging oneself economically or a just a “voluntary cohabitation.”
Against those secular kinds of views, this chapter hits at the core. Metropolitan Hilarion in agreement with the saints of East and West explains that marriage is a matter of how we are created. Mankind is made up of two in one, male and female. That idea comes from the book of Genesis. The mystical importance of the marital union comes not from its ability to produce children, neither its legal, nor any other specific earthily aspect of it. The image of marriage comes from the union of Christ and the Church, shown most mystically in the Eucharist. The Holy Trinity, as St. John Chrysostom says, is the living image of marriage. Join us Saturday, Jan 18, 2020, to get a picture of the Orthodox understanding of marriage.