McCrory/Parker Wedding

Sacrament of Holy Matrimony: McCrory/Parker
Jer 31.31-34; Rev 19.1, 5-9; and John 15.9-12
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Cathedral of St. John Berchmans, Shreveport, LA

You are blind if you see no beauty here this morning! Open your eyes and see. You are deaf if you hear no truth here this morning! Open your ears and listen. See God’s beauty, hear God’s Word and wait for the Goodness that comes for the patient heart and mind, the heart and mind that waits on the advent of the Lord. I wonder what you will see and hear. Many of you will leave here believing that you have been to a wedding. Many others of you will leave believing that this man and woman have publicly expressed their love for one another and are now bound together until death. And there are probably some few of you here who will leave believing that we have celebrated a great moment in the lives of this couple, a moment that sets them on a holy path for life. These are all true. But how many of you will leave knowing that what we have actually done here is to help Sean and Anne become sacramental signs of Christ’s love for his Church? That’s right. Ultimately, finally, this day is about Christ and his Church. Of course! We will toast Sean and Ann, shower them with gifts, smother them with congratulations and perhaps whisper a suggestion or two for the honeymoon, but Sean and Ann know that the sacrament they celebrate today is finally about Christ’s love for his bride, the Church. They will walk out those doors and show the rest of us how much the Church is loved by her Lord. Our job—all of you and me—is to say “Amen” and mean it.

Jesus says to the disciples: “As the Father loves me, so I love you. Remain in my love.” Just as God the Father loves His only Son, so that only Son loves his Church…and what must the Church do: remain steadfast in the Love that loves us first and last. “If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love…” And his first commandment to us is “Love God.” Everything makes sense! God is love, so He loves by nature. Christ is God, so he too loves by nature. We are the creatures of Love Himself so we too love in the love that created us. So that song is right, “All you need is love!”

But then there’s that other song, “If wishes were horses, we’d all ride for free.” It should not surprise us that Jesus must command us to love one another. And even under direct orders from God Himself to love one another, we manage to wiggle and squirm enough to split the atoms of his intent and figure out ways to avoid the whole messy business of loving others, enemies, self and go on living a more practical and efficient life. All you need is love! Come on, who wrote that fortune cookie?

If love alone solved our problems then we would all get married around age seven. There would be no divorce. No separation. Priests would never have to see couples for marriage counseling. Teenagers would be obedient. And there would be war no more. Look. Let’s get real for a minute. Love starts this business on the right track and stands there open like a limitless trunk of treasure for anyone who would come along and snatch up a handful of mercy, a pocketful of compassion. But that treasure-trove of loving is the first thing forgotten when the VISA bill comes in and Ann has spent $3, 987.13 on shoes. Or Sean has to borrow money from the Library of Congress to pay his Amazon.com book bill. Or when Ann lets a small hurt grow into an open wound, or when Sean refuses to admit ALL of his mistakes, or worse yet, when Ann frowns upon Sean’s cigar-smoking buddies. What’s the first thing to suffer when those bratty kids don’t make the grade in English and history? What’s the last thing called up to assuage a guilty conscience or an angry word? Love. Love is easily forgotten because love sits quietly at the root of a marriage, silently drawing its strength from God and if God is forgotten, well…there is no joy. There can be no joy.

Jesus had to order us to love one another b/c as God he knows the final benefit of doing so, but as a Man he knows all the temptations against love. He knows all about possessiveness, jealousy, selfishness, a lusting eye, gluttony for attention, the sometimes ruinous draw of friends and family, greed for money, the traps at work, and on and on. He knows the dangers of loneliness, despairing for companionship, the craziness of isolation, and all those demons that tear at our holiness when we choose to withdraw from his Father’s other children. He knows that we must love b/c anything less is less than he died to accomplish. And he knows how and how often we fail to do the very thing we were created to do: to love Him above all else. This is why I say we are not here this morning to attend a wedding. We are here to witness Sean and Ann make themselves into sacramental signs of Christ’s love for His Church—a love that cannot die b/c God Himself is Life eternal.

If you thinking right now: geez, better them than me! Think again. I’m only going to warn you once. You will say “Amen” this morning. Several times, you will say “amen.” Say it loud if you mean it, otherwise: just be quiet. “Amen” is not a prayer made lightly. Saying “amen” means that you are committed to that which you have said “amen” to. In other words, “amen” means both “yes, it is” and “yes, I will.” If it is and you will, then, in the presence of God and this man and woman, say so. Amen. If it isn’t and you won’t: be quiet. You will be called upon to make good your promise. Do not make it lightly.

Sean and Ann, the prophet Jeremiah tells the people of Israel that the Lord will make a new covenant with his nation. This won’t be a covenant of animal sacrifice but rather a covenant where He will place His law within us, and write it upon our hearts; He will be our God, and we will be His people. He accomplished this on the Cross and by emptying the Tomb. Today you will stand before His people and bind yourselves together as a outward sign of His love for us. We will look to you to show us how and how much He loves us. This means that when envy tempts, jealousy rises, lust interferes, wrath hungers, you will look first to His love. You will look to one another and see what you promised here: to be his prophets of mercy, his priests of compassion—for each other and for us. There is nothing more essential than this: love one another. Money, sex, kids, in-laws, friends, school, work—all of these will find a place in your life together. But first you must love. So, keep his commandment to you, to all of us: remain in His love and let His joy in you be complete.