Marriage

 (27th Sunday, B)

I’m a little hesitant to try to preach on marriage, given especially that I have no experience of it. In fact, I don’t even know very many married people on a personal level, except for my parents—whom I got to know pretty well because I first met them when I was very young.

Nevertheless, I’ve given homilies at plenty of weddings, especially early on in my priesthood, and therefore have reflected some on this great Sacrament. So, I’ll give it a shot, and you, especially you married folks, can feel free to take what I say with as many grains of salt as you see fit.

Marriage exists near the heart of God’s creation. Indeed, the Bible itself begins and ends with a marriage: the union of our first parents, Adam and Eve, at the beginning, and the blessedness of those called the wedding feast of the Lamb at the end of the book of Revelation. (19:9) Marriage, in a sense, is the oldest of the sacraments, going back even to before the original sin. As one of the nuptial blessings puts it, marriage is the part of original blessing that was not washed away by the Flood. Long before there were churches and priests and popes, God was happily blessing marriages.

Now when it comes to marriage in the Catholic faith, the first thing we are talking about is the marriage of heaven and earth, of God and humanity in Jesus Christ. In Jesus, God has taken our human nature to himself and brought about a union, the joining of heaven and earth we receive and enjoy especially in Holy Communion. From Jesus’ side on the Cross blood and water flow – these are the sacraments of baptism and Eucharist that make the Church. As Adam’s wife Eve was born from his side, as we heard in the first reading, so the Church is born from the pierced side of Christ crucified.

The Risen Christ then takes the Church as his bride and makes her fruitful in the Holy Spirit. She becomes for us ‘Mother Church.’ All of us, by our baptism, have become children of the marriage of Jesus Christ and his bride the Church. We are sons and daughters of the marriage of heaven and earth.

And just as we are cared for, strengthened, and supported by Jesus Christ through the ministry of our mother the Church, so the sacrament of marriage exists for the mutual good, care, and support of the spouses.

Further, just as Mother Church rejoices in her newborn Christians each year at the Easter Vigil, so an openness to welcoming and educating new life is an integral part of a sacramental marriage.

Finally, as Christ is faithful to his Church and has promised his fidelity to the end of time, so married couples by their fidelity become an image of Christ’s own faithfulness and thereby a witness to him both in the Church and to the world. As the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults puts it, “By their mutual fidelity, the spouses continue to make present to each other the love of Christ and lead each other to greater holiness through the grace they receive from the Sacrament.” (283)

Therefore, married folks, I invite you today to rejoice in your vocation, a call that goes all the way back to God’s original blessing upon creation. Rejoice in your vocation to show forth the love and care of God in Jesus Christ, to be an image of his fidelity to his Church, and to give Mother Church the joy of new Christians.