IN the ordinary life of the world, a man's marriage is often one of the most important points, for with it he begins an entirely new section of that life. Therefore at that point the Church steps in to give his action her formal recognition an blessing, to start him on that new section in the right spirit, and to give him such help along his way as he is able to receive.
The general intention of the marriage Service is to open the natures of the bride and bridegroom towards each other, especially at the astral and mental levels; and then, having done this, to draw a ring round them, separating them to a certain extent from the rest of the world. From the point of view of the inner life matrimony is a tremendous experiment, in which the parties agree to make certain sacrifices of individual freedom and preferences, in the hope and with the intention first, that through their mutual reaction each will intensify the inner life of the other, so that their joint output of spiritual force may be far greater than the sum of their separate efforts would be, and secondly, that they may have the privilege of providing suitable vehicles for souls who desire and deserve a good opportunity of rapid evolution.
Naturally there are many cases in which these results are not achieved; a very real and careful co-operation is required, and many people are not capable of giving this. It exacts a high standard; it aims at nothing less than keeping them perpetually in love with each other, not in any silly or gushing way, but strongly, deeply, truly, with common sense and utmost self-forgetfulness. There is no doubt that each sacrifices something; the bachelor can pour himself out equally in all directions, and gain great results therefrom; but married people, in order to obtain this closer linking, must focus specially upon each other, even though it is done in order to procure still better results by this ecstasy of devotion. Just as these two are brought together, and made practically one by ceaseless mutual consideration and self-sacrifice, so should all humanity be brought together; and one day it will be. Meantime, the wedded state is exceedingly good practice.
The Church Service for holy matrimony is short and simple. It begins with an address to the congregation, announcing the wish of the couple to be joined together in marriage, and demanding whether anyone present knows any reason against such union. If no objection is raised, the Priest asks each of the parties in turn whether he or she is fully willing to accept the other; and if both reply in the affirmative, the ring is placed upon a silver salver, and the Priest sprinkles it with holy water and solemnly blesses it, strongly impressing upon it the thought of true faith and ever-deepening love, so that it becomes a powerful talisman.
The father or guardian of the bride than comes forward, takes her by the right hand, and formally delivers her over to the Priest, as representing Christ's Church; the Priest immediately hands her on to the bridegroom with the words: “Receive the precious gift of God.” Then the bridegroom repeats after the Priest the great and solemn obligation of the marriage:
I take thee to be my wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, to cherish and to honour, till death us here do part; and thereunto, in the presence of God, and in the power and love of Christ our Lord and Master, I plight thee my troth.† Amen.
And at the end of this solemn promise comes the Amen, signifying, as I explained in an earlier chapter, on the part of the bridegroom an emphatic pledge: “By Amen, Lord of Life, I swear that this shall be so,” and on the part of the congregation a most earnest prayer: “So may it be; may the vow be kept.”
The bride now takes upon her the same obligation towards her husband, and then follows the strange and ancient ceremony of enduing her with the consecrated ring, which is placed first for a moment upon the thumb, and then upon the first and second fingers, before it finally reaches its permanent abiding-place upon the third, the bridegroom meanwhile invoking the sacred Names of the Holy Trinity, and ending with the usual asseveration. Then he repeats another ancient vow:
With this ring I thee wed; my truest love I thee pledge; with my body I give thee reverence, and with all my strength I thee shield.† Amen.
The Priest now touches the foreheads of the bride and bridegroom with holy water, joins their right hands and, holding them together with his own right hands, pronounces the actual formula which makes them husband and wife:
I join you together in marriage in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.† Amen.
Covering their clasped hands with the end of his stole, to signify the protection of the Church, he adds the well-known words: “To whom God hath joined together, let no man seek to put asunder.” Then he turns to the congregation and make formal public proclamation that the wedding is an accomplished fact. The marriage ceremony has its legal as well as its ecclesiastical side; the English custom of publishing the banns for three weeks, the demand at the beginning of the Service whether anyone present knows of any impediment, and now this definite announcement to the world in general, are all clear evidence of its legal character, and have nothing to do with its inner or sacramental aspect.
Here follow some versicles in which the Priest invokes for the newly-married couple blessing, love, wisdom and strength; and after these should come two prayers for their future—one that they may ever remember to keep their vows, and the other (to be used only when suitable) that they may receive the “dower of blessed children” mentioned in the hymn which immediately follows the prayers. The second of these prayers we have had to omit (although tradition is entirely in its favour) in deference to the quaint modern custom of refusing to recognize the existence of the most obvious facts in nature. This part of the Service explains itself; it will be sufficient to quote it.
O Eternal God, Creator and Preserver of all mankind, giver of all spiritual grace, the author of everlasting life, send Thy blessing upon these Thy servants, this man and this woman, whom we bless in Thy Name; that these persons may surely perform and keep the vow and covenant betwixt them made, and may so hold their lives in the knowledge and love of Thee that they may dwell together in holy love and peace.† R. Amen.
Father of Lights, in whose hand are the souls who come to earth, do thou bless the marriage of these Thy servants with fruitfulness of increase. May their lives be so sanctified in Thy service that to them may be given children radiant with thy power and glory.† R. Amen.
Then follows Keble's will-known Wedding Hymn, in which, however, we have been compelled to make somewhat extensive alterations in order to bring it into harmony with the ideals of our Church.
The Priest pronounces this blessing over the bride and bridegroom.
Almighty God pour upon you the riches of His grace, sanctify and bless you, that you may serve Him both in body and soul, and live together in holy love unto your lives' end.† R. Amen.
It is considered fitting that either at the time of the wedding, or as soon after it as convenient, the bride and bridegroom should receive Holy Communion together. If this is done at the time of the wedding, the Service is, after the Roman custom, called the nuptial Mass. In this a few appropriate changes are introduced, over which we need not linger, as they are duly given in our Liturgy, and need no explanation.
Naturally, this Sacrament of matrimony is not the occasion of a vast general outpouring of spiritual force such as that which accompanies the Holy Eucharist, or Vespers and Solemn Benediction. But it is of immense importance to those intimately concerned in it, and its inner effect upon them may be not only great at the time but permanent, if they are ready to take what it can give them. Sometimes both parties are so self-conscious, or so nervous and flustered that but little good can be done; but there are those who are collected and deeply in earnest, and when that is the case the inner side of the ceremony is well worth watching.
As the bridegroom utters the troth-plight, his whole aura shines and swells until it completely enfolds his bride; and when her turn comes, she surrounds him in the same way, and the two greatly enlarged auras remain thus interpenetrating and of course strongly interacting. Into this magic double-sphere comes the consecrated ring, instantly lighting up both of them, and so raising their vibrations that they become far more sensitive than they usually are. While this condition of extended consciousness and high receptivity still exists, the Priest pronounces the formula of marriage; and as he says the words a flood of light surges from him through the combined auras, and for the time welds them into one.
That light and that wondrous unity persist during the rest of the Service, and probably under favourable circumstances for some little time afterwards. Then gradually each settles back again into something like its previous form and condition; yet it so permanently enlarged and modified, and each retains a special sympathy in vibration with the other, so that it can far more readily be influenced by it than by any other stimulus from without. So the parties may continue indefinitely to react upon each other for good if they are able to preserve perfect harmony.
So great an opportunity necessarily brings with it its responsibility and its danger. The intimate connection which enables these two to help each other inevitably makes them abnormally sensitive each to the other's influence and feeling; so that if they allow disharmony to arise the link is as powerful for evil and for sorrow as it would otherwise be for good and for joy. As I began by saying, marriage is a tremendous experiment, and it needs tact, unselfishness, adaptability and an inexhaustible fount of love to make it a complete success.
A link so close and so strong is not broken by physical death; the power to influence and the susceptibility to that power reside not in the physical body, so they are not lost when it is dropped. Souls differ much in this respect; for their natures and their deserts are different; some rise quickly out of touch with earth, some are held against their will for many years in its immediate neighbourhood, and some intentionally hold themselves back in order to remain nearer to those whom they love. Knowing of the continuance of the link, the Church looks with some doubt upon second marriages, though she does not refuse to celebrate them; but at least there should be a decent interval.
Holy Matrimony should always be celebrated before noon, as after that hour the magnetic conditions are far less favourable.
I have already explained the action of the Sacrament of absolution when writing of its place and value in the course of the Holy Eucharist (p. 76). It will perhaps be well, as an appendix to that explanation, to quote some sentences of what is written upon the subject in our Liturgy.
It is strictly forbidden to the Priest and the suppliant for absolution respectively to ask and disclose the identity of others implicated in any wrongdoing confessed. The suppliant comes to confess his own faults, not those of others. The Priest should be as sympathetic, natural and humane as possible with those who come to him to receive absolution.
Children under seven are not subjects for confession, since it is the tradition of the Church that they are not capable of serious and responsible sin. Above that age and until they are responsible agents they may, in the Liberal Catholic Church, make auricular confession (save in emergency) only with the consent of one or other of the parents.
The Priest hears the confession without interruption, unless that be necessary. He then gives such counsel as he may think well. In the Liberal Catholic usage he does not impose a penance, but may suggest that the suppliant should attend the Holy Eucharist, with the desire that the power which then comes to him shall be used against some particular fault or set of faults.
Again I quote from our Liturgy:
The purpose of the Sacrament of Holy Unction are: (a) to aid in the restoration of bodily health, (b) to prepare the man for death, (c) to which may be added remission of sin, since it also involves a form of absolution. Notwithstanding the trend of custom in the Latin Church which has been to limit the administration of this rite to those in grave danger of death, it is desirable that the rite should be more generally employed as an aid to recover from any serious sickness. For this reason it is among us called “Holy Unction” rather than “Extreme Unction,” though the latter name is sometimes said to originate from the idea that it is the last of the unctions given to the ordinary Christian, those of Baptism and Confirmation preceding it.
Holy Unction is not to be regarded as having in ordinary circumstances any quasi-miraculous effect. It is intended simply to aid the normal process of nature by freeing the body from lower influences and opening it to spiritual influence.
There is little reliable information to be had as to this Sacrament. It is often supposed to originate from the instruction given by St. James; “Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” But there is, of course, no evidence that the idea was the writer's own; it is quite possible that, as many believe, the plan was suggested by the Christ and that St. James was merely repeating for the benefit of his followers what he had heard from the Master.
This healing aspect of the Sacrament seems to have been overlooked in later years, and it has come to be regarded merely as a final preparation for death. There is probably some confusion here with the old custom of sealing all the force-centres in the body of a dying man, lest objectionable entities should seize upon that body as the owner left it, and employ it for purposes of evil magic. This was no doubt in process of time changed into the present Roman Method of anointing the organs of the senses, and asking God to forgive the patients the various sins that he had committed by their means. But down to the twelfth century the practice in the Western Church undoubtedly was to give the unction freely to all who were suffering from serious illness, without considering whether there was imminent danger of death. Various reasons conspired to limit its use to the dying; the Catholic EncyclopÊdia suggests the rapacity of the Priests, who demanded an unconscionable price for its administration, and the arising of certain popular superstitions that if the anointed person recovered he was for the rest of his life precluded from exercising the rights of marriage, eating flesh, making a will, or walking with bare feet.
It seems not improbable that in the near future we may see a considerable revival of the use of this Sacrament for healing purposes, as well as for the helping of those at the point of death. In anticipation of this we have included in the second edition of our Liturgy a simpler form of it, not for use with one sick man, but arranged especially as a public Service of Healing, to be held in the church. I quote the following passages from the introduction.
“The purpose of the Service of Healing is two-fold; first, to bring spiritual upliftment to those who are in sore need thereof; second, to give some relief, when possible, to those who are suffering from various physical ills.
“At the outset, by means of the Asperges, the thought-atmosphere of the church is purified and made ready for the coming of a healing Angel, who is immediately thereafter invoked. The Confiteor follows, and the attitude of those who joined in those glowing sentences should be an earnest desire to rise above the imperfections of their nature and to live the higher and nobler life. Such an attitude of intense earnestness calls to the deeps within us and arouses our spiritual powers to activity. The Priest then pronounces the Absolution. It must be remembered that this does not relieve a man of responsibility for the consequences of his wrong-doing, because it is only by paying each debt which he contracts that he can learn the great lessons of life. Absolution does make it easier, however, to do what is right after a mistake has been made, by clearing away the mental and emotional entanglements which blind the inner nature, and by straightening out distortions in the etheric body.
†“The people rise and sing a hymn which is intended to incline their hearts to the Christ, and to enable them to feel the nearness of His Presence and the wonder of His Love. The words of this hymn should be felt as well as sung by those who desire help. St. James' instructions as to the anointing of the sick are then read, and the Veni Creator, which is the traditional call for the aid of God the Holy Ghost, is sung by His kneeling worshippers. While this is sung, for eyes that can see, the whole Church slowly fills with that glorious glow of fire which is the outward token of the power of the Presence of the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity; and in the strength of that Presence the Priest sends forth that cleansing current of exorcism which is intended to clear away anything that might block the way of the healing force.
“The next step is to follow the apostolic custom of anointing the patient with consecrated oil, invoking the mighty Leader of the Hosts of the healing Angels, the Archangel Raphael. The possibility of angelic assistance is unsuspected by the majority of people in this blind and materialistic age, but it is nevertheless a wonderful and beautiful fact which will be comprehended more and more clearly as the years roll on. Then the Priest lays his hands upon the patient's head, and pours into him, with all the strength which God has given to him, the uplifting and curative force of the Lord Christ. He has been specially prepared by his ordination to be a channel for this force and for the power of God the Holy Spirit, so in doing this he is but exercising one of the functions of his ministry. If a Bishop conducts the Service he has the additional opportunity of helping by the imposition of his crosier, the healing power of which has long been recognized.
“During the anointing and laying on of hands the attitude of the patient should be that of love for our Lord Christ and confidence in His mighty power. The whole nature should be opened to the down-pouring spiritual influence, even as a flower opens its chalice to the sun. The less the thoughts of a person are centred upon himself at this supreme moment, the more the depths of his nature are responsive to the compassionate Presence of the Christ, and the greater is the possibility of cure.
“The last great means of spiritual aid and physical healing is now given to the patient in the Holy Communion. No greater help both for body and soul can be offered than this, for with the reception of the Sacred Host the human body becomes for a few hours a veritable shrine, radiating the glowing love and power of the Christ.
“It is not expected that those instantaneous cures which are commonly (though wrongly) called miraculous will often occur at these Service. They may and they do happen in certain cases; but we are not sufficiently conversant with the method of working of these stupendous powers to be able to predict results. Many patients, especially chronic cases, feel considerable temporary improvement, but gradually relapse and slide back either partially or entirely. Such patients should try again. Where there is a slight amelioration, only temporary at the first attempt a second may well carry it further; a third, a fourth, a fifth, a sixth may carry it much further still. Even the Christ Himself had to apply His treatment twice in the case of the man born blind.
“If a patient is not restored to health even after repeated trials, it must not be thought that Christ cannot cure, that the Holy Spirit cannot cure; it should be remembered that the channels are human, frail and imperfect, and it may well be that, for any one of a dozen reasons, the divine force does not flow through this Priest or that in just the way that will cure a particular patient. The Priest will do his best to help; the patient will do his best to prepare himself to be helped; what will come of it is in higher hands than ours—in the hands of Christ the Healer and the King.”
It will be noted that we invoke especially the aid of the Archangel Raphael, as his name has always been associated with the distribution of the healing forces of nature. In the book of Tobit we read:
God hath sent me to heal thee and thy daughter, for I am Raphael, one of the seven holy Angels who present the prayers of the saints, and go in and out before the glory of the Holy One. Then they were troubled and fell upon their faces; for they feared. But the Angel said unto them: Fear not; it shall go well with you. Not of any favour of mine, but of the will of our God I come; therefore praise Him for ever and give Him thanks, for I go up to Him that sent me.† (Tob., xii, 14.)
I presume therefore that the gigantic figure which appeared in answer to our invocation was a representative of that Archangel; he certainly seemed to be of that Ray and type. He was a very tall and dignified personage, whose consciousness appears to function normally on the spiritual or nirvanic plane, although he pours his forces down to the etheric level. His aura glows chiefly with green and purple; the purple forces flow through the Bishop at the exorcism which precedes the Anointing, while the green forces seem to be those of the actual healing. I noticed that he took especial advantage of the singing of the Veni Creator, the traditional call to God the Holy Ghost, which is so powerful a factor in this Service. As I have mentioned before, whenever that is sung the church fills with a wonderful red glow, like a glorious sunset shining through a faint mist, and the Angel seizes upon this mist, takes it into his arms as it were, and weaves it into a huge vortex, which he directs upon the person with whom the Priest is dealing at the moment—or rather directs it upon the Priest and pours it upon the patient through him.
It is most interesting to watch the working of the consciousness of this great Healing Angel, but it is very difficult to explain it physically. The mind of an Angel works in many compartments, and he can keep them all going simultaneously. One can see an Angel's thoughts just as one can see a man's; but one sees a bewildering number of them because his consciousness is so complex. This great healing Angel, for example, unquestionably had many departments of his thought, each of which was working upon a separate case; and yet he was giving to each of those cases something equivalent to what to us would be our whole concentrated attention. While he was working in our church, working hard and incessantly, he was also equally present in a number of other places—at least thirty or forty—all connected in some way with the curing of disease. All these scenes somehow reflected themselves in little compartments in his aura, like a number of vividly coloured moving pictures.
One was that of a surgeon performing an operation—a scene in which all the actors were dressed in white. The surgeon made some mistake—cut something which he did not mean to cut, or ought not to have cut—and was all unnerved and full of sick horror; but instantly the Angel sent him a flash of blinding lightning which was somehow like the waving of a sword, and in a moment that steadied his nerves and showed him what to do, so that the patient's life was saved.
In another picture some nuns were kneeling round the bed of one who was apparently their Mother Superior, and was evidently near to dying. But their prayers wove a lovely coloured network about the figure on the bed; and the Angel took advantage of that, and poured vitality into the network so gently and carefully that the Mother Superior did not die, but presently a little colour came into her cheeks, and she raised herself in the bed and held out her hand, blessing the praying nuns. Then they all kissed her hand one by one, and went away weeping joyously; and the Mother Superior drank something from a bowl into which the Angel poured his light, and then she sank into a healthy sleep, and is now rapidly recovering. Our Blessed Lady the World-Mother was also helping in that case, for we stood near the dying nun, and flooded the room with her wonderful blue peace. But what seemed so strange to us was that all these events, and many more, were happening at the same time, and the Angel was taking part equally in all of them, and they were all mirrored in different parts of his consciousness.
There was at the same time another case going on, of which I saw only the end—that of a shipwrecked sailor (or rather, I think, a ship's officer) who was cast upon a desolate island, very badly hurt and almost dying. Yet he could not be allowed to die, because of the perpetual earnest prayers of his wife and little daughter far away at home, whose karma was such that they had not deserved the sorrow of losing him. So he had to be strengthened and nursed back to health by a number of what seemed almost miraculous little coincidences—a fruit falling from a tree and rolling within his reach, a hawk chased by an eagle dropping a fish actually upon him, and the sea casting upon the beach near him other small things that were of use to him. Also the Angel helped the praying daughter to materialize beside him and comfort him and enabled her to remember her visit to him when she awoke, and relate it to her mother as a dream which she felt to be true; so that when they heard of the loss of the ship they were not dismayed, but were quite sure that he had been saved, and would presently be rescued and brought back to them. Evidently the work of a healing Angel is much more extensive and varied than we had supposed.
All this was to me entirely unexpected, because I had not realized that there were Angels who took part in such work. Obviously this opens up all kinds of possibilities: the work of Angels may perhaps touch our lives at many more points than we have hitherto realized. It may well be that Angels watch over the sick with general blessing and strengthening, for in that great Angel's consciousness I also saw a number of still sheeted forms lying side by side—probably a ward in a hospital—and the Angel was brooding over them and pouring out influence upon them. Sick people are often wonderfully cheerful under their troubles; and after this experience I have wondered whether Angels may not be to a large extent responsible for that cheerfulness. There is certainly much going on all around us of which we know very little.
For those who are at the point of death the reception of the Holy Communion has always been regarded as most desirable when it is at all possible, and this final administration is called the viaticum, or provision for the journey.
Unction may be employed in curing etheric disease. Most diseases are complicated by nervous affections, and it is probable that such could be helped by the anointing with consecrated oil. The Sacrament is calculated to help and heal the man if possible, but if he must leave his physical body it makes the parting easy and simple for him. When a man is obviously dying, it is well that the Church should dismiss him with her blessing, giving him a final impusle towards good by the viaticum, and sealing up the centres so that no undesirable use can be made of the corpse, either by the man himself or by others. For there have been cases in which ill-instructed and terrified men have made frantic efforts to re-enter their bodies after death; and success in such an attempt would lead to conditions so unnatural and harmful that it is wise to make it impossible. There is a vast and most interesting literature on the subject of the life after death; but this in not the place to consider it.