Sacramental marriage and love versus irregular unions. Reflection on divergent interpretations of the 8th chapter of the Amoris laetitia
René Balák
The University of SS. Cyril and Methodius Trnava, Department of Philosophy and Applied Philosophy & Center for BioethicsAbstract
The theological and moral debate, focused on the new theological proposals, brings controversy not only into the area of methodology but also in the content of the problem.
Therefore it is necessary to ask questions about to what biblical foundations the theologians, who bring in these new proposals, want to appeal. By drawing in to the comparative
method the author shows the lability and discontinuity of new proposals, which diverge from the theology of creation as well as from the evangelical message of marriage.
In moral sacramentology the issue of marriage was being reflected in the context of vocation of spouses to holiness, where fidelity is connected with indissolubility as a way of life
vocation. The transcendent vertical dimension of the sacramental marriage is essential to marital communio personarum, while the new theological proposals level out sacramental
marriage to being something ideal and impossible, which is not suitable for every person who was called by God to married life. The sacramental marital union is, however,
a divine plan, which spouses are to realize in the spirit of sacramental love whose characteristic features can not be realized in the so-called irregular unions. People in such
unions can not logically receive the gifts of grace, for what they are based on, Christ has clearly condemned as evil. Christ’s words of truth about marriage are to be the reference
to theological criterion for the merciful approach to this negative phenomenon, as well as to persons who find themselves in difficult situations that are not morally good.
Keywords:
sacramental marriage, sacramental love, theology, biblical foundations, vocation, communio personarum, irregular unionsReferences
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