Important Feature
Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, to people of good will. We praise You, we bless You, we worship You, we glorify You, we give You thanks for Your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, Almighty God and Father; Lord Jesus Christ, only-Begotten Son of the Father: and You, O Holy Spirit. Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father: You take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us. You are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer. For You alone are the Holy One, You alone are the Lord, You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen.
And the Two Shall Become One
And the Two Shall Become One
A Defense Against Same-Sex Marriages
by
His Eminence, Archbishop Stephen (Enea)
Primate of the Italo-Greek Orthodox Church
Recently, an article appeared in the Times Union Newspaper, which serves the Albany-Schenectady-Saratoga region of New York State, entitled “Sacramental Existence of Marriage.” The article was written by Paul Peter Jessup, a bishop of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church.
In his article, Bishop Jessup states that sacramental marriage exists for same-sex couples and that priests rabbis, ministers and other clerics have always had the God-given right to celebrate the marriage sacrament for gays and lesbians and anyone else they choose.
While I cannot speak for rabbis, ministers and other clerics, I can, as a bishop of the Orthodox Church, speak about what priests and bishops in the Orthodox Church can and cannot do when it comes to the administration of the Holy Mysteries, or Sacraments. I would suspect that what I am about to say would also apply to priests and bishops of the Roman Catholic Church as well, as we share in many ways a common ecclesiastical and theological heritage and agree on several key issues, especially in areas such as the sanctity of marriage, abortion, homosexuality, etc.
The Church is very clear about what it believes marriage is and is not. Marriage comes from the loving hand of God, who fashioned both male and female in the divine image (see Genesis 1:27). A man "leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body" (Genesis 2:24). The man recognizes the woman as "bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" (Genesis 2:23). God blesses the man and woman and commands them to "be fertile and multiply" (Genesis 1:28). Jesus reiterates these teachings from Genesis, saying, "But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother [and be joined to his wife], and the two shall become one flesh'" (Mark 10:6-8).
These biblical passages help us to appreciate God's plan and purpose for marriage. It is an intimate union in which the spouses give themselves, as equal persons, completely and lovingly to one another. By their mutual gift of self, they cooperate with God in bringing children to life and in caring for them. In short, marriage is God’s plan for the continuation of the human race, a plan which intentionally requires the participation of a man and woman united in a holy bond blessed by God.
Marriage is both a natural institution and a sacred union because it is rooted in the divine plan for creation. It is for this reason that the marriage of a man and woman becomes a sacrament. It is for this reason that the Church teaches that the valid marriage of baptized Christians is a sacrament - a saving reality.
Jesus Christ made marriage a symbol of His love for His Church (see Ephesians 5:25-33). This means that a sacramental marriage lets the world see, in human terms, something of the faithful, creative, abundant, and self-emptying love of Christ.
There are three main characteristics of the Holy Mystery or Sacrament of Marriage. These are: procreation, fidelity and a covenant agreement or sacramental bond. In the Orthodox Christian understanding, marriage creates a holy, permanent bond between a man and a woman, which depicts Christ’s union with the Church.
The union of a man and woman in the Sacrament of Marriage is a holy act. As with all Holy Mysteries of the Church, God dispenses grace through the Church and participation in the Mysteries or Sacraments themselves.
The Holy Mysteries or Sacraments are signs that point to the presence of God among His people. They are also efficacious signs, that is, they bring about or effect what they signify. As Orthodox Christians, we believe that God wills to make Himself present through the Holy Mysteries and to confer His grace upon us in a particular way when they are properly enacted within the Church. That is why we are always to approach the Sacraments with reverence and awe.
While there is nothing in the institution of marriage itself that “mystically” dispenses divine grace. A husband and wife are joined in a holy union with God, a union in which they assume their role as active partners with Him in the work of furthering the human race. To that end, God’s grace is available to them to strengthen them in their journey together as husband and wife.
The union of a man and woman in the Sacrament of Marriage is their mutual consent before God to actively participate with Him in the act of creation. It is in the marriage ceremony wherein a solemn covenant is made with God for this purpose. This covenant simply cannot be entered into by two people of the same sex.
In the conjugal act, husband and wife manifest their covenant with God by means of the reciprocal personal gift which is proper and exclusive to them. In the sacred act of procreation, the spouses enter into a profound and intimate relationship with one another and with God in the person of Jesus Christ.
Marriage is not simply a mechanism for attaining holiness and a fuller spiritual life. It is a sacred vessel which the Creator designed for creating new physical life. Therefore, is it a holy and sacred act, one not to be entered into carelessly or vulgarly.
In the sacramental encounter of marriage, a man and woman are brought closer to that oneness and communion with God and each other that they were destined for before the Fall.
Jesus Himself, by coming to restore our broken relationship with the Father, gives spouses the strength and grace to live their marriage vocation. Christ, in a deeply personal way, gives Himself to a married couple through the Holy Eucharist to which Christian marriage is intimately connected.
It is in the Eucharist that a married couple is strengthened to continue their struggle for holiness and sanctify their lives so that they may worthily prepare and strengthen themselves for the sacred and holy act which they covenanted with God to undertake. The man and the woman, who by their marriage covenant are no longer two but one flesh, are renewed and fortified by the Eucharist and are better equipped to live out their sacramental marriage in loving solidarity where they render mutual help and service to each other through the intimate union of their persons.
Homosexual persons cannot rightfully or validly enter into or contract marriage because they are not made for marriage. Civil unions entered into under state or federal auspices can provide benefits and rights to same-sex couples that are normally available to married couples, but these should not be termed marriages nor should the term marriage be redefined simply to assure that same-sex couples receive the same rights and benefits as heterosexual married couples.
Bishop Jessup states in his article that elected officials sometimes must act in a just manner that runs contrary to public sentiment. The problem with this is that very often while the decisions made by our public officials may be legal, they are more often than not morally and ethically wrong and fly in the face of divine positive law.
Every human being, having been created in the image and likeness of God and being a child of God, is entitled to be treated with the utmost respect. No individual or group of individuals should ever be singled out for special treatment, whether good or bad. We are all equal in the eyes of God and it is the responsibility of government to ensure that that equality is maintained and preserved in every aspect of society. Government has no authority whatsoever to interpret divine positive law in a manner which results in the abrogation of that law or which redefines it in such a way that it demeans, restricts or nullifies a person’s relationship with God.
It is true that the purpose of government and the role of elected officials are to serve. The principal role of government is to ensure that all men and women, regardless of race, creed, color, and economic or social status live together in peace and harmony and that every man and woman has the opportunity to achieve his or her full potential and status as responsible members of the human family.
In working toward this goal, government must see to it that any laws enacted to ensure the right of every human being to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness represent the mind of the people who elected them and whom they serve. Government has no right to enact or enforce the enactment or compliance of any law which is not of the mind of the majority of the people they serve.
With regard to the subject of marriage, the majority of the people of this land are of the mind that marriage is a sacred institution entered into by a man and woman and that it has been given by God for the sole purpose of procreation, the continuation of the human race. This view, in fact, is a part of the divine positive law because it has been revealed by God to His people.
God has made His will and mind known in various and myriad ways ever since the first man and woman were set in the garden of paradise. There is no ambiguity in the Church’s understanding of marriage, of what it is and what purpose it serves, for God Himself has spoken definitively on the matter. The Church, being ever faithful to Christ its head and to the law of God, cannot err when it speaks on matters of faith and morals which have been given to us by God and which have been transmitted to each succeeding generation by the Apostles and their successors in the episcopal college throughout the centuries.
The definition of marriage as we understand it in the Church is not the development or idea of a single individual or group of individuals but rather the understanding of God’s will made known directly by Him in the Church.
Bishop Jessup would have us believe that the opposition of same-sex marriage based upon biblical assertions is illogical because it denies those affected one or more of their basic human rights. One must truly wonder at this assumption. How could God, who is the Author of all that is good, enact a law or ordinance that would harm His own creation, a people He loves so much that He sent His only-Begotten Son into the world to die for them?
Such an assertion would also imply that the Church is prone to error and that God’s laws are not enduring but finite. In other words, as humanity continues in its development and growth, certain of God’s laws become obsolete and inapplicable as time goes on. Certainly God’s laws do not change or become irrelevant. They are laws of perfection, leading humanity to a closer communion with God and to the restoration of mankind’s former relationship with its Creator.
The bishop goes on to say that while government can restrict civil marriage through legislation, it can’t prevent him or any other clergy person from celebrating the marriage sacrament of two souls who happen to be of the same sex. The issue is not whether government can or wants to prevent him or any other clergy person from performing same-sex marriages. In fact, given that government has shown itself increasingly intolerant of the Church’s teachings on these very important subjects, it would not be unreasonable to assume that government would rejoice at every instance where clergy persons do solemnize marriages between same-sex couples.
No, the real issue is not that government will prevent clergy from performing marriages of same-sex couples but rather that government will force the Church and other ecclesial bodies to solemnize marriages between persons of the same sex. That’s the real threat we face.
It is for this reason, and many others, that the Church must always ensure a complete separation of itself from the State. It may cooperate with the State, as much as possible and so long as that cooperation does not compromise its obedience to the laws of God or the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but under no circumstances must it ever act as an agent of the State for any reason.
Marriage has always been intended by God to be between a man and a woman only. The eternal quality of consecration to God pervades a truly sacred marriage, eternally contradicting the popular currents of culture that seem to make marriage a matter of convenience or a mere business relationship.
When marriage vows become secularized, as they have in many cases, when God is not included in the marriage covenant and in its purpose, then marriage is no longer sacred. It becomes a vehicle with which to measure personal happiness, and if and when this happiness disappears in the face of difficulty, it is not surprising that many marriages end.
What is consecrated is of Divine origin and Divine intent. This is what is meant by the word 'sacred'. What is consecrated or holy cannot be changed by cultural trends, time, or by individual beliefs. A sacrament partakes of the order of Life and cannot be altered by law or edict, even though its sacred nature may be forgotten or abused. Marriage, as sacrament, reflects God's intention to share the gifts of love and the joy of love with two, who, through their love, will bring the fruits of their joining to the world for the benefit of the world as well as for themselves. These fruits include but go far beyond the bearing of children. They are the fruits of the soul, the expressions of the soul, bringing what is Divine in each partner into greater manifestation, making each one a truer reflection of their inner being.
The sacramental nature of marriage makes it more than a physical bond, more than an emotional bond. It is, in its deepest meaning, a spiritual bond built out of the depth of love between two souls intimately bound up in the love of God and the person of Jesus Christ. To consecrate a marriage is to bring it into concordance not with two wills but with three - that of the two souls involved and that of God. A sacred marriage is a covenant between two who love each other in God and with God, whose joining becomes an expression of the desire of each to love and serve God together.
It is God who calls, or invites, a man and woman to marriage. It is for this reason that we call marriage a vocation, in which one man and one woman are called upon to serve God, in Jesus Christ, as His instruments in the procreation and furtherance of the human race.
Standing before God at the Altar and in the presence of the assembly of believers, a man and woman publicly make their covenant with God and consent to be active participants with Him in His work of creating new life. This is truly a sacred and holy work.
In the teaching of the Orthodox Church, a sacramental marriage requires the mutual consent of both partners and God’s blessing imparted through the official ministry of the Church. In fact, this is also the teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. While there are differences between the two Churches as to how this ministry is exercised, we are nevertheless of one mind that it is in the Church that the union of a man and woman is acknowledged and blessed.
Additionally, both Churches believe that marriage, as ordained by God, is between a man and woman only. There is no bishop or priest of either the Orthodox or Roman Catholic Churches, who, being faithful to his office and the teachings of his Church, would dare to make a statement which is so clearly and diametrically opposed to the will of God.
Bishop Jessup’s assertion that priests have always had the God-given right to join two people of the same sex in marriage is so far from the Truth and Tradition of the Church that it verges on heresy. There is nothing in the Tradition of the Church which permits any bishop or priest to solemnize a marriage between two people of the same sex. Further, the bishop’s statement that “independent-minded Catholic and Orthodox clergy have all solemnized marriages” is not only curious but also lacks a true understanding of the ecclesiology of the Church and the theology of the priesthood.
There is no such thing in the Orthodox Church, and the Roman Catholic Church for that matter, as an “independent-minded” priest and bishop. Bishops and priests, by virtue of their ordination and consecration, are bound to be of one mind with Christ and with the Church. Bishops are bound to be of one mind with their brother bishops and priests are bound to be of one mind with their bishop. The idea that a bishop or priest can make a decision on his own to perform a same-sex marriage when such an act is not of the mind of Christ or the Church is absolutely incredible.
Bishops and priests are bound and accountable to each other by faithful obedience and submission to the will and laws of God. In this regard, there is no such thing as an “independent-minded” Orthodox bishop or priest.
Bishops stand at the head of each local Church as the duly appointed servants of Christ. In Western Christian terminology, a bishop, and by extension a priest, because the priest functions at the will of the bishop, stands in the midst of the people in persona Christi, in the person of Christ. This concept can also be embraced by the Orthodox Church.
No bishop or priest has the authority or power to act or speak on his own. Whatever power or authority a bishop has is the power and authority of Christ Himself. When a bishop or priest speaks, he must always be of the mind of Christ. When a bishop or priest acts, he must act as Christ would act for it is Christ’s high priesthood which he participates and shares in.
Just as the members of the Body of Christ, the Church, receive God’s grace and become sharers in the divine nature through the Holy Mystery of Baptism, so do men who are ordained priests and consecrated bishops receive the grace of participating in the priesthood of Christ. Christ is the source of the sacramental life of the Church, and He is the source of the one priesthood which is bestowed on the men whom He calls to follow Him as priests.
When Christ was on earth He gave full authority and power to the Apostles to bind and loose and to forgive sins, and He bestowed upon them the dignity of the priesthood at the Last Supper. Priests are ordained by bishops because bishops are the sharers in that authority which Christ gave to the Twelve and no one else.
By virtue of his ordination, the priest becomes something more than just a functionary. He is not set apart simply to perform certain tasks in the Church. On the contrary, by virtue of the ordination he receives, the priest is ontologically changed. He is configured to the Person of Jesus Christ, Head and Shepherd of the Church, in a new way in his very being.
The relation of the priest to Jesus Christ, and in Him to His Church, is found in the very being of the priest by virtue of his sacramental ordination and in his activity, that is, in his mission and ministry, which is the mission and ministry of Christ Himself. Just as at Baptism and Chrismation the Christian is sacramentally marked on the soul, so is the man who is ordained a priest marked sacramentally and configured in an intimate way to Christ the Priest. It is for this reason that we can say that the priest is In Persona Christi.
Any Orthodox bishop or priest who acts apart from the mind of Christ and the Church ceases to be a bishop or priest and places himself outside of the Church. One cannot be an Orthodox bishop or priest if he does not teach what the Church teaches, or is not of one mind with Christ, whose instrument of teaching and sanctification he is and in whose priesthood he participates.
The question then is this: How is it that an Orthodox bishop, who has been endowed by Christ with His authority and who works through, in and with the bishop to bring about the sanctification of mankind, can put forth a position which is in direct contradiction to the mind of Christ?
To uphold God's intent for marriage, in which sexual relations have their proper and exclusive place, is not to offend the dignity of homosexual persons. Christians must give witness to the whole moral truth and oppose as immoral both homosexual acts and unjust discrimination against homosexual persons.
Bishop Jessup states that anyone who opposes gay marriage delays economic rights to those who are homosexual. The bishop indicates that those who oppose same-sex marriages are being unjust. It is not unjust to deny legal status to same-sex marriages because marriage and same-sex unions are essentially different realities. In fact, justice requires society to do so.
Government, whether on the federal or state level, is within its rights to sanction same-sex unions, but it has no right whatsoever to define or redefine what marriage is. Neither does the Church or any other religious body. The Church knows what marriage is because marriage has been ordained by God Himself.
The disclaimer appearing at the end of Bishop Jessup’s article which states that his views are personal and do not reflect those of his Church is troubling. As a bishop of the Church, his personal views on such a matter most definitely reflect on and affect his Church. It is sad that any Orthodox priest or bishop would utter a statement or profess a belief or ideal that is so utterly in opposition to what the Church teaches and believes.
Every Orthodox bishop and priest is sworn and obligated to defend the Faith and to teach it as the Church teaches it. If they do otherwise, they are no longer members of the Church or faithful stewards of the sacred office entrusted to them by Christ.
Sadly, Bishop Jessup has presented in his article a gravely flawed thinking on the Orthodox teaching of marriage. It is a view that is completely opposed to what the Church teaches and believes.
The Church, in our ever-changing world, always turns in faith to the Lord. There is no doubt that the teachings of the Church are in direct opposition to what the world teaches and believes to be normative and acceptable behavior. It is to be expected, therefore, that the Church will be attacked, sometimes even viciously, by those who are agents of a culture which promotes death, both spiritual and physical, and a disposable humanity. What is unexpected and truly regrettable is when one of our own, especially one entrusted with a position of authority in the Church becomes one of those attackers.
If we are to be true disciples of Jesus, then we should expect to carry the cross of misunderstanding, attack, condemnation and even hate. As St. Peter said to the Sanhedrin, “We must obey God rather than men.”
I want to be very clear on the following point: You cannot on the one hand support same-sex marriage and on the other be a faithful Orthodox Christian in good standing. Likewise, you cannot hold a position of authority or responsibility in the Church and offer personal opinions which are in support of same-sex marriages.
The separation of Church and state does not require division between belief and public action, between moral principles and political choices, but protects the rights of believers and religious groups to practice their faith and act on their values in public life.
Opposition to same-sex marriage is not a political issue but a religious one. Marriage, as it has been given by God, rests solely within the authority of the Church and not with the state. Civil unions, on the other hand, rest exclusively within the authority of the state and are not within the purview of the Church.
There is only one definition of marriage. If government has a problem with that definition then it is the responsibility of government to come up with another term that can be utilized by those who do not share the majority view of what marriage is. If, however, government insists on continuing the use of the term marriage then it is obligated to conform to the definition of marriage as the majority of the people understand it.
Sadly, Bishop Jessup’s article is another example of the same faulty thinking that says all life issues are the same. The philosophical fallacy that underpins this argument is called relativism. It teaches that all things and issues are relative and up to the individual to decide which is of greater importance. For many, this way of thinking squares in their minds with the sense of strong individualism fostered by the increasingly secular and faithless culture in which we live. It goes hand-in-hand with the attitude, “Whatever I think or believe, whatever I value or want, whatever I feel or desire must be correct.”
The debate over marriage finds its resolution in God. Any person of reason and logic, having studied the matter closely, will come to the conclusion that marriage is truly a sacrament instituted by God. Remove God from the equation and what results is chaos.