The Catholic Church teaches that a married couple’s relationship expresses in a unique way the unbreakable bond of love between Christ and his people, and, therefore, marriage is a sacrament. Like the other six sacraments of the Church, marriage is a sign or symbol which reveals the Lord Jesus and through which his divine life and love are communicated.
In a sacramental marriage, God’s love becomes present to the spouses in their total union and also flows through them to their family and community. By their permanent, faithful and exclusive giving to each other, symbolized in sexual intercourse, the couple reveals something of God’s unconditional love.
The sacrament of Christian marriage involves every facet of the husband and wife’s entire life as they journey together through the ups and downs of marriage and become more able to give and receive from each other. Their lives becomes sacramental to the extent that the couple cooperates with God’s action in their lives and see themselves as living “in Christ,” with Christ living and acting in their relationship, attitudes and actions.