Marriage Jubilee Mass

The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde on Oct. 27 at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More for the Annual Diocesan Marriage Jubilee Mass.

Joy and happiness embrace us this afternoon as we gather to give thanks to God for His faithful love shown to and reflected by married couples within our diocese who are celebrating this year the 50th and 25th anniversaries of their marriages. Our entire diocesan church rejoices!

This afternoon, we have 71 couples celebrating 50 years of married life, and 95 couples celebrating 25 years of married life. These Jubiliarians have traveled here today from as far way as King George, Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Winchester, Woodstock and Culpepper, and they are joined by others who live as near as Arlington, Alexandria and Fairfax County. We even have one couple who is celebrating their 50th anniversary on this exact date. Congratulations to all of you! Your faithfulness to each other and to your marriage vows is an example to each of us, and we are both strengthened and encouraged in our own lives and commitments by this example you set before us. We pledge to you today the support of our prayers and we renew our affection and care for you because together we are the Church — we are family — God’s family!

Prayer, love and Mary: these are the three threads, taken from today’s Scripture readings, with which the tapestry of this homily is being woven.

In today’s first reading from the Old Testament, from the Book of Tobit, we see projected before us the image of a married couple beginning their new life together with prayer. "On their wedding night, Tobiah arose from bed and said to his wife, ‘Sister, get up. Let us pray and beg our Lord to have mercy on us’ … Sarah got up, and they started to pray…." They prayed that God would bless their married life with His mercy and help and allow them to live together to a happy old age.

Prayer is essential to each of us in living out the individual vocation God has given us because in the experience of prayer, we become more open to God’s transforming grace and become more able to respond generously and faithfully to His Will in our lives. You who are married, including our Jubilarians, know from experience that living out the reality of Christian marriage is not easy. The union of husband and wife is intended, within our Christian perspective, to reflect the union of Christ and His Church. Christ loves us, His Church, with a love that is permanent, faithful and creative. So, husband and wife must love each other in the same way — with a love that is permanent, faithful and creative. Only through prayer can this type of love be lived generously and sustained perseveringly. Our Jubilarians can attest, as do all married couples, that married life is a curious mixture of joy and sorrow, accomplishment and failure, ecstasy and monotony, health and sickness. Prayer alone allows their love to be transformed enough so that they are then empowered to live marriage according to God’s plan.

Yes, the love of husband and wife needs a daily ongoing transformation. Human love is a beautiful and noble reality, but human love, by itself, is not enough for living out the privilege and challenge of Christian marriage. The love that is needed is Gospel-love, the love so clearly described in today’s second reading from the New Testament, from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians. "Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails." Any one of us here who is trying to live this kind of Gospel-love knows how challenging it is. The closer we are to each other, the more challenging it is and yet the more rewarding! We simply cannot live this kind of love on our own. The water of our human love must be transformed into the wine of Gospel-love. Again, our Jubilarians know how true this is and today they give thanks to God for His unfailing help to them in their efforts to live love in this new way.

The Lord Jesus came to teach us and, even more, to show us this new kind of love. The Kingdom Jesus came to begin is the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of God’s love present and active among His people. The first sign of the newness of God’s Kingdom took place at Cana, at a wedding, where Jesus performed His first miracle, changing water into wine precisely to show and to initiate this radical newness of God’s Kingdom.

As I said, Christ’s first miracle at Cana took place at a wedding and at the request of His Mother. Because the married couple is a sign of Christ’s union with His Church, the married couple is likewise a sign of the new love that must mark every member of God’s Kingdom. And, the prayer and example of Mary is key to their efforts. Mary is the first and best disciple, and her advice is timeless: "Do whatever He tells you." Christ tells us all to love one another the way He loves us. He tells married couples to reveal in their love His union with the Church: a union that is permanent, faithful and creative. But, we confess that on our own, we cannot love this way. In a sense, Mary echoes this on our behalf: "They have no wine." Her statement is simultaneously Her request. Jesus gave new wine then, and gives us new love now — His Gospel love, so that we can do what He tells us.

How essential, then, to our lives of faith and, therefore, to married life, is the presence and prayer of the Mother of Jesus! The Christian couple and the Christian family are not complete without Mary, because her role is to lead them — and all of us — to Jesus. How fitting that we observe the marriage jubilees of our diocesan couples in October, the month dedicated to Mary under her title of Our Lady of the Rosary. The rosary itself is such a powerful prayer, helping us to focus on Christ in the presence of His Mother Mary. On Oct. 16, just about 10 days ago, Pope John Paul II sent us an Apostolic Letter in which he calls for a Year of the Rosary, invites our renewed commitment to this prayer, which is "a compendium of the Gospel," and adds five Mysteries of Light, including the manifestation of Jesus at the wedding of Cana (cf. Rosarium Virginis Mariae, 21). He notes that the prayer of the Rosary "…also, and always has been, a prayer of and for the family" (Ibid. 41), and goes on to remind us: "We need to return to the practice of family prayer and prayer for families, continuing to use the Rosary" (Ibid). I can think of no better way for us to keep alive the encouraging spirit of this celebration than for each of us, especially as couples and families, to pray the Rosary with renewed fervor and commitment. Again, I quote the Holy Father: "The family that prays together stays together. The Holy Rosary, by age-old tradition, has shown itself particularly effective as a prayer which brings families together. Individual family members, in turning their eyes towards Jesus, also regain the ability to look one another in the eye, to communicate, to show solidarity, to forgive on another and to see their covenant of love renewed in the Spirit of God" (Ibid).

Yes, prayer, love and Mary are the three dominant threads with which the tapestry of this homily has been woven. Dear Jubiliarians and sisters and brothers all, following the advice of Mary to do what Jesus tell us, and keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus and Mary through the prayer of the Rosary, let us renew our commitment to love one another with Gospel-love, so that the radical newness of God’s Kingdom may shine forth and become a clearer reality here in this diocesan church and beyond!

Copyright ©2002 Arlington Catholic Herald.  All rights reserved.