‘You have drawn grace, strength from married life’
Homily of
Cardinal Justin Rigali
Wedding Anniversary Mass
Cathedral Basilica
of Saints Peter and Paul
Sunday, May 4, 2008 - 11:00 a.m.
Dear brother Priests,
Dear Deacons,
Dear Friends in Christ, especially you, dear Jubilarians
of fifty years of Christian married life,
We celebrate this beautiful liturgy today at a very important
moment of the Church’s year.
It was just last Thursday that we celebrated the feast of
the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. Jesus,
after the completion of His mission on earth, returned to
His Father in heaven. And next Sunday we will celebrate
the feast of Pentecost and, therefore, we are preparing
for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Both of these events we celebrate within what we call the
“Easter season.” We continue to celebrate the
victory and triumph of the Resurrection of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ.
Within this beautiful context of Easter, the Ascension and
the coming feast of Pentecost, we celebrate another victory,
another triumph—your wedding anniversaries, dear friends.
Twenty-five, fifty and more years of Christian married life
are a wonderful gift to celebrate with joy and thanksgiving.
Actually all the graces and blessings you received during
these years, the victory of your love for each other and
for your family are all part of the victory of Christ over
sin and death. In other words, from Christ’s Death
and Resurrection you have drawn grace and strength for your
married life, for your love, your family, your mission.
The power of Jesus’ Resurrection has been infused
into your hearts and lives—to enable you to love and
support each other and to live according to Christ’s
commandment of love.
This celebration of your anniversary is a very special time
in your lives. But it is also special for the whole Archdiocese
of Philadelphia and for the whole Church, because you are
an important part of Christ’s Church.
This occasion is one of remembrance and thanksgiving. You
look back to the beginning of your marriage to praise God,
to thank Him for each other and—all of you who were
blessed with children—to thank Him for your family.
In this context of looking back, I would like to share with
you words that were often used in the marriage ceremony.
You will remember some of the phrases and all of the sentiments
expressed.
May I ask you to listen prayerfully, to savor those words
of the Church that sealed your love and prepared you for
the reality of Christian marriage in everyday ordinary life.
On your wedding day the priest began with these or similar
words:
“Dear friends in Christ: As you know, you are about
to enter into a union which is most sacred and most serious.
It is most sacred because it was established by God Himself.
By it, He gave to man and woman a share in the greatest
work of creation, the work of the continuation of the human
race. And in this way He sanctified human love and enabled
man and woman to help each other live as children of God,
by sharing a common life under His fatherly care.
“Because God Himself is thus its author, marriage
is of its very nature a holy institution, requiring of those
who enter into it a complete and unreserved giving of self.
But Christ our Lord added to the holiness of marriage an
even deeper meaning and a higher beauty. He referred to
the love of marriage to describe His own love for His Church,
that is, for the people of God whom He redeemed by His own
blood. And so He gave to Christians a new vision of what
married life ought to be, a life of self-sacrificing love
like His own. It is for this reason that His Apostle, St.
Paul, clearly states that marriage is now and for all time
to be considered a great mystery, intimately bound up with
the supernatural union of Christ and the Church, which union
is also to be its pattern.
“Your marriage is also then most serious, because
it will bind you together for life in a relationship so
close and so intimate, that it will profoundly influence
your whole future. That future, with its hopes and disappointments,
its successes and its failures, its pleasures and its pains,
its joys and its sorrows, is hidden from your eyes. You
know that these elements are mingled in every life, and
are to be expected in your own. And so, not knowing what
is before you, you take each other for better or for worse,
for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, until
death.
“Truly, then, these words are most serious. It is
a beautiful tribute to your undoubted faith in each other,
that, recognizing their full import, you are nevertheless
so willing and ready to pronounce them. And because these
words involve such solemn obligations, it is most fitting
that you rest the security of your wedded life upon the
great principle of self-sacrifice. And so you begin your
married life by the voluntary and complete surrender of
your individual lives, in the interest of that deeper and
wider life which you are to have in common. Henceforth you
belong entirely to each other; you will be one in mind,
one in heart, and one in affections. And whatever sacrifices
you may hereafter be required to make to preserve this common
life, always make them generously. Sacrifice is usually
difficult and irksome. Only love can make it easy; and perfect
love can make it a joy. We are willing to give in proportion
as we love. And when love is perfect, the sacrifice is complete.
God so loved the world that He gave His Only begotten Son;
and the Son so loved us that He gave Himself for our salvation.
‘Greater love than this no man has, that a man lay
down his life for his friends.’
“No greater blessing can come to your married life
than pure conjugal love, loyal and true to the end. May,
then, this love with which you join your hands and hearts
today, never fail, but grow deeper and stronger as the years
go on. And if true love and the unselfish spirit of perfect
sacrifice guide your every action, you can expect the greatest
measure of earthly happiness that may be allotted to man
in this vale of tears. The rest is in the hands of God.
Nor will God be wanting to your needs; He will pledge you
the life-long support of His graces in the Holy Sacrament
which you are now going to receive.”
With these words, dear friends, you joined your hands and
hearts, with trust in God and each other. And the years
have passed.
But this anniversary, this remembrance, is the occasion
for great thanksgiving to God. And this you do by participating
in the Sacrifice of the Mass which makes present in your
lives the victory of Jesus Christ. It brings into your hearts
the grace and power of Christ’s Resurrection.
Even as you thank God for the great gift of each other and
for the wonderful blessing of your love, you realize that
you have lived this reality of love in the context of human
limitations and challenges. And so, today, in your great
act of thanksgiving to God, your celebration invites you
to personal renewal and ever greater generosity and self-giving.
Those of you who have children are joined by them as you
renew your joy and your love!
And those of you who may not have children still possess
the great gift of each other and your lifelong love.
Today, in your anniversary celebration, the Church assures
all of you once again that through the Sacrament of Marriage
your love has been elevated even beyond its natural goodness,
to be a sign of Christ’s love for His Church. And,
once again, the generosity of Christ, His sacrifice, His
self-giving is held out to all of you, dear friends, as
the ever relevant pattern of your love for each other and
for your families.
May, then, this day of remembrance, thanksgiving and renewal
fill your hearts and lives with the peace of the Holy Family
of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Amen.
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