Eucharist and marriage
Sacraments celebrating the union of the two principles; reference to the gospels
March 24th 2012
What do Christians know of the meaning of the sacraments instituted by the Church? Just take the eucharist and marriage: these two sacraments celebrate the union of the masculine and feminine principles thanks to which life is perpetuated on all levels of creation. There is a difference, in that marriage is more concerned with the physical plane, with life in society, while the eucharist, the communion with the body and blood of Christ represented by the bread and the wine, concerns the spiritual life, the inner life. But the symbolism is the same, and it can be found at the beginning and the end of Jesus’ mission.
We are told in The Gospel according to John that Jesus was invited to a wedding at Cana in Galilee, where he performed his first miracle, changing water into wine. The fact that Jesus went to a wedding and performed his first miracle there tells us that he must have accorded a great deal of importance to this ceremony. And his last act before his death was to institute the eucharist. How can we fail to see that the essence of Jesus’ teaching rests on knowledge of the two principles?