Marriage homily for wedding of Jonathan Bennett and Carmel Brizzi married at St. Peter's Church on March 10, 2007. They share a blog, along with Jonathan's brother, David, and his fiance, Jennifer Dierker and a few other contributors at http://blog.ancient-future.net/ . This is the online teaching I make reference to in the homily and is a great site in which to learn more about the Faith and of news of interest.
Tobit 8:4-8
1 Cor 12:31-13:8
John 15:9-12
In the prayer of Tobiah we just heard in the first reading, Tobiah recalls God’s Words : “It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a partner like himself.” – recalling us to the foundation of marriage. That God created them Male and Female. And that the two shall become one flesh. In a sense this is a prayer that both Jonathan and Carmel are praying together today. A prayer of thanks to God for creating a partner like oneself, one with which to share in the love of God in this life. In the Garden - God created Adam and placed Eve next to Him so that they might find each other and become One. In Jonathan and Carmel’s case, he put a little more space in between – one in Kingston and the other in Red Cliffs, Victoria, Australia. But as God always provides the means, He invented the internet just in time to allow them to find each other. That’s the way it is with God’s plans sometimes. He works in our lives in ways we don’t expect or couldn’t have dreamed of.
This is brought out in that first reading this afternoon. Tobiah probably never would have thought that he would have found himself kneeling next to Sarah and praying this prayer on their wedding night. And for good reason.
For I believe you need to know some of the background to this story in case you’ve forgotten the full story of Tobiah and Sarah. At first listening it sounds simply like a pious couple who on their wedding night, are sure to include God, praising him for the gift of creation, and of marriage, and asking that their marriage be always based on love.
I hope and expect that Jonathan and Carmel will follow the example of Tobiah and Sarah and will pray on their wedding night as well as everyday of their married life together.
But in the reading today, Tobiah has even more of a reason for praying. For he is Sarah’s eighth husband, and every one of the seven before him, died on their wedding night with her. You’ve heard of the runaway bride, but if there were ever a case for a runaway groom, Tobiah would never have been blamed. And yet Tobiah is so in love, he counts not the cost, nor risk. Tobiah is so in love, that he finds himself willing to be “victim” number 8 if it comes to that. Tobiah realized that the odds were against him. Tobiah also realized the power of placing a relationship in God’s hands. For God answered Tobiah’s prayer.
Jonathan and Carmel realize the same. They realize that they are about to make promises that are nearly impossible to keep, on human terms, to remain faithful to one another through good and bad, for the rest of their lives. They know the statistics of our culture which reveal the difficulty of such far-reaching promises. For this reason, they come here to the altar of God today, to ask the One who can give them the grace to live out fully their marriage. They, like Tobiah and Sarah, get down on their knees and implore God’s blessing.
I don’t see too much pain in their faces yet from kneeling…but then of course I’ve only just begun preaching. A marriage that is founded on God and centered in Christ, through prayer and worship, will be aided with every grace necessary.
They also realize that their marriage is a sacrament – that it is an outward sign that signifies and inward grace. Marriage is the outward sign of the symbol of God’s love for His People. This is what you are to teach us.
Today, by the power of this sacrament of marriage, your very lives will become a textbook, a catechism. Whereas the teaching you do now online, involves lots of reading and writing, the teaching you will be doing soon by the power of this sacrament, will be done by simply living your life as a married couple. Yes, today you are to become a living teaching about Christ’s love for His Church. The Scriptures reveal that marriage was created for this reason, as an image of God’s total union with his Bride, the Church. This is what marriage is about – about revealing to the world, God’s love for His People. The responsibility is great but the grace given to you in this sacrament is even greater. Your primary service work now becomes living as a married couple, a communion of persons, a family and even if you are the best teachers in your school and online, nothing will give greater glory to God and be of more importance than the witness of your marriage.
Just as the crucifix is a sacramental, and every time we see it we are reminded of the love that Jesus has for us, so will the two of you, joined in holy matrimony, be a sacramental, a reminder for the Church of the love of Christ. When you live your marriage promises faithfully, people will look at you and how much you love each other and the way you treat each other, and they will understand better how much Jesus loves his Church.
In a culture where solid, lasting, holy marriages are in the minority, Christianity struggles to make sense. The image of marriage is foundational to Christianity. That is why the Bible begins and ends with marriages, between Adam and Eve in Genesis and between Christ and the Church in the Book of Revelation. In holy marriages we learn about the truth of our relationship with God in Christ Jesus. Your marriage is to teach us.
Jonathan and Carmel, we heard in the Gospel, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” This means the love you are to show forth is to be like the Father’s, which holds nothing back from the Son, and like the Son, who holds nothing back from his bride, the Church. You join together in a covenant today, where you bring everything you have, everything you are and unite it to each other. So that what was once yours Carmel is now Jonathan’s and what was yours Jonathan is now Carmel’s. Carmel, as the bride, you will even take on the family name of Jonathan and shortly become Carmel Bennett.
By this you teach us that in our Baptism, which is a covenant alike to marriage that was made between God and us, what was ours is now God’s, and what was God’s is now ours. What did we bring to our marriage with God? A look at the crucifix reminds us – sin, suffering, and death. And what did God bring to us: divine love, endless life, and joy and glory. Yes we share everything now, sufferings, sorrows, life, joy; everything in our life is shared with God and everything of God’s shared with us. Like Carmel, in baptism, we even take a new name – Christian. And there is no other name under heaven more glorious than that of Christ’s.
What you, Jonathan and Carmel commit to today is a faithful and indissoluble bond. “What God has joined, no man may divide.” Through good times and bad, in sickness and in health you are to be joined.
This will teach us that with our marriage to God, we are in a bond that will not be broken. God will never take back his love from us. We in our sin, can turn away from Him, we can break our end of the covenant, but He, for His part, is always faithful. We also know from Scripture, that ultimately the Bride, the Church, is faithful too, for in the end she will be presented to Christ holy and without blemish. So long as we remain united with her, the bride, following her teachings, living her life, we know that our bond with Christ can never be broken.
Jonathan and Carmel, you commit to a relationship open to life. You are to love each other so much that you will be open to and desire to have children who can share in this life of love together. You are to be content not only to sacrifice yourselves for each other, but to be open also to children for whom you will make even more self-sacrifice out of love.
From this we learn that Christ desires a Church that is open to life. That is one that seeks to bring all of humanity into its fold. He wants us to realize how awesome the Faith is, how awesome a relationship we have with him, and so desire to share it with many others.
Jonathan and Carmel, we are asking you to teach us, to show us how much Christ loves His Church.
Jonathan and Carmel, I ask you, the Church asks you, to give yourselves so unreservedly to each other as to become that image for us, of Christ’s love for the Church. With Jesus as the foundation of your marriage you will bring each other to holiness and happiness. You will raise up children to God. And you will perform the greatest teaching service you can possibly do in this life – as your life teaches us of the love of Christ for his people. God bless and keep you.
1 Cor 12:31-13:8
John 15:9-12
In the prayer of Tobiah we just heard in the first reading, Tobiah recalls God’s Words : “It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a partner like himself.” – recalling us to the foundation of marriage. That God created them Male and Female. And that the two shall become one flesh. In a sense this is a prayer that both Jonathan and Carmel are praying together today. A prayer of thanks to God for creating a partner like oneself, one with which to share in the love of God in this life. In the Garden - God created Adam and placed Eve next to Him so that they might find each other and become One. In Jonathan and Carmel’s case, he put a little more space in between – one in Kingston and the other in Red Cliffs, Victoria, Australia. But as God always provides the means, He invented the internet just in time to allow them to find each other. That’s the way it is with God’s plans sometimes. He works in our lives in ways we don’t expect or couldn’t have dreamed of.
This is brought out in that first reading this afternoon. Tobiah probably never would have thought that he would have found himself kneeling next to Sarah and praying this prayer on their wedding night. And for good reason.
For I believe you need to know some of the background to this story in case you’ve forgotten the full story of Tobiah and Sarah. At first listening it sounds simply like a pious couple who on their wedding night, are sure to include God, praising him for the gift of creation, and of marriage, and asking that their marriage be always based on love.
I hope and expect that Jonathan and Carmel will follow the example of Tobiah and Sarah and will pray on their wedding night as well as everyday of their married life together.
But in the reading today, Tobiah has even more of a reason for praying. For he is Sarah’s eighth husband, and every one of the seven before him, died on their wedding night with her. You’ve heard of the runaway bride, but if there were ever a case for a runaway groom, Tobiah would never have been blamed. And yet Tobiah is so in love, he counts not the cost, nor risk. Tobiah is so in love, that he finds himself willing to be “victim” number 8 if it comes to that. Tobiah realized that the odds were against him. Tobiah also realized the power of placing a relationship in God’s hands. For God answered Tobiah’s prayer.
Jonathan and Carmel realize the same. They realize that they are about to make promises that are nearly impossible to keep, on human terms, to remain faithful to one another through good and bad, for the rest of their lives. They know the statistics of our culture which reveal the difficulty of such far-reaching promises. For this reason, they come here to the altar of God today, to ask the One who can give them the grace to live out fully their marriage. They, like Tobiah and Sarah, get down on their knees and implore God’s blessing.
I don’t see too much pain in their faces yet from kneeling…but then of course I’ve only just begun preaching. A marriage that is founded on God and centered in Christ, through prayer and worship, will be aided with every grace necessary.
They also realize that their marriage is a sacrament – that it is an outward sign that signifies and inward grace. Marriage is the outward sign of the symbol of God’s love for His People. This is what you are to teach us.
Today, by the power of this sacrament of marriage, your very lives will become a textbook, a catechism. Whereas the teaching you do now online, involves lots of reading and writing, the teaching you will be doing soon by the power of this sacrament, will be done by simply living your life as a married couple. Yes, today you are to become a living teaching about Christ’s love for His Church. The Scriptures reveal that marriage was created for this reason, as an image of God’s total union with his Bride, the Church. This is what marriage is about – about revealing to the world, God’s love for His People. The responsibility is great but the grace given to you in this sacrament is even greater. Your primary service work now becomes living as a married couple, a communion of persons, a family and even if you are the best teachers in your school and online, nothing will give greater glory to God and be of more importance than the witness of your marriage.
Just as the crucifix is a sacramental, and every time we see it we are reminded of the love that Jesus has for us, so will the two of you, joined in holy matrimony, be a sacramental, a reminder for the Church of the love of Christ. When you live your marriage promises faithfully, people will look at you and how much you love each other and the way you treat each other, and they will understand better how much Jesus loves his Church.
In a culture where solid, lasting, holy marriages are in the minority, Christianity struggles to make sense. The image of marriage is foundational to Christianity. That is why the Bible begins and ends with marriages, between Adam and Eve in Genesis and between Christ and the Church in the Book of Revelation. In holy marriages we learn about the truth of our relationship with God in Christ Jesus. Your marriage is to teach us.
Jonathan and Carmel, we heard in the Gospel, “As the Father loves me, so I also love you.” This means the love you are to show forth is to be like the Father’s, which holds nothing back from the Son, and like the Son, who holds nothing back from his bride, the Church. You join together in a covenant today, where you bring everything you have, everything you are and unite it to each other. So that what was once yours Carmel is now Jonathan’s and what was yours Jonathan is now Carmel’s. Carmel, as the bride, you will even take on the family name of Jonathan and shortly become Carmel Bennett.
By this you teach us that in our Baptism, which is a covenant alike to marriage that was made between God and us, what was ours is now God’s, and what was God’s is now ours. What did we bring to our marriage with God? A look at the crucifix reminds us – sin, suffering, and death. And what did God bring to us: divine love, endless life, and joy and glory. Yes we share everything now, sufferings, sorrows, life, joy; everything in our life is shared with God and everything of God’s shared with us. Like Carmel, in baptism, we even take a new name – Christian. And there is no other name under heaven more glorious than that of Christ’s.
What you, Jonathan and Carmel commit to today is a faithful and indissoluble bond. “What God has joined, no man may divide.” Through good times and bad, in sickness and in health you are to be joined.
This will teach us that with our marriage to God, we are in a bond that will not be broken. God will never take back his love from us. We in our sin, can turn away from Him, we can break our end of the covenant, but He, for His part, is always faithful. We also know from Scripture, that ultimately the Bride, the Church, is faithful too, for in the end she will be presented to Christ holy and without blemish. So long as we remain united with her, the bride, following her teachings, living her life, we know that our bond with Christ can never be broken.
Jonathan and Carmel, you commit to a relationship open to life. You are to love each other so much that you will be open to and desire to have children who can share in this life of love together. You are to be content not only to sacrifice yourselves for each other, but to be open also to children for whom you will make even more self-sacrifice out of love.
From this we learn that Christ desires a Church that is open to life. That is one that seeks to bring all of humanity into its fold. He wants us to realize how awesome the Faith is, how awesome a relationship we have with him, and so desire to share it with many others.
Jonathan and Carmel, we are asking you to teach us, to show us how much Christ loves His Church.
Jonathan and Carmel, I ask you, the Church asks you, to give yourselves so unreservedly to each other as to become that image for us, of Christ’s love for the Church. With Jesus as the foundation of your marriage you will bring each other to holiness and happiness. You will raise up children to God. And you will perform the greatest teaching service you can possibly do in this life – as your life teaches us of the love of Christ for his people. God bless and keep you.
Posts
2 comments:
Thank you Fr. Hahn for posting this! I am grateful to have it in print. It's inspiring and wonderful. God bless and see you at Easter.
Jonathan
Thanks for posting this. It is good to have it on record!
Post a Comment