(The following homily was given by Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde during the Marriage Jubilee Mass at St. Thomas More Cathedral in Arlington, on Sunday, Oct. 26, 2003.)
In a particular way, I wish to speak to you, our golden and silver marriage Jubilarians, who are gathered in this cathedral this afternoon, surrounded by your immediate family members, other relatives and friends and, indeed, by our entire diocesan community, who, present in spirit, are praying for you and rejoicing with you on this special day.
Dear Jubilarians, you are witnesses! For 50 and 25 years you have been witnessing to the truth, rooted in both the Word of God and in the natural law, that marriage is the union of one man with one woman. God alone is the author of marriage and from the beginning of creation He has intended that the union of marriage involves only one man with one woman. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us: “The vocation to marriage is written in the very nature of man and woman as they came from the hand of the Creator. Marriage is not a purely human institution despite the many variations it may have undergone through the centuries in different cultures, social structures and spiritual attitudes. These differences should not cause us to forget its common and permanent characteristics. Although the dignity of this institution is not transparent everywhere with the same clarity, same sense of the greatness, the matrimonial union exists in all cultures. 'The well-being of the individual person and of both human and Christian society is closely bound up with the healthy state of conjugal and family life'” (no. 1603). I thank you for witnessing to the dignity and sanctity of marriage. Especially in these days, we are in need of your witness because there are increasing efforts to redefine marriage completely by extending it from the union of one man with one woman to include the union of two men or of two women. Your witness strengthens us to remain steadfast in our defense of marriage as it is intended by God, its author and creator.
Dear Jubilarians, you are witnesses! For 50 and 25 years, you have been witnessing in your own lives to the transforming power of prayer. After all, the Lord has indeed heard the prayer you made when first married " the prayer whose words echoed what Tobiah said to the Lord when he married his wife Sarah, the prayer heard in today's first ready: “[Lord], call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age.” Today, we gather as a diocesan family to recognize that God has answered your prayer. God has been with you through the years to strengthen you in times of trial and to gladden your hearts in times of blessing. Yes, prayer is essential to each of us 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.
Dear Jubilarians, you are witnesses! For 50 and 25 years, you have been witnessing to the power of love transformed by the presence of Jesus Christ. From the moment you gave your consent before God and His Church, the Lord Jesus has been a partner in your lives as husband and wife. His presence, deepened through daily prayer and the reception of the sacraments, especially Penance and Eucharist, has truly transformed your love for each other. His presence has enabled your mutual love to become the kind of love described by St. Paul in today's second reading taken from his First Letter to the Corinthians. You have seen the many faces of this love in yourself or your spouse over the years. St. Paul gives us a picture of what love looks like and of what love does not look like, so that we can pattern our lives on authentic Gospel love. We need these concrete guidelines as a measuring stick and an inspiration.
Yes, we each need to savor the many faces of love described by St. Paul. Whatever our individual vocations, however many more years are left to us for the journey to the Father's house, we are called to live out in our daily lives the multi-faceted love St. Paul outlines. He tells us that love is patient, kind, not jealous, not pompous, not inflated (with itself), not rude; love does not seek its own interests, is not quick tempered, does not brood over injury, does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. The loss of gospel love in our world has led to the breakdown of families and, indeed, to a profound loss of truth and of respect for human life. With your witness, dear Jubilarians, each of us, whatever our individual vocation, is strengthened to invite the Lord Jesus to come more deeply into our lives each day, and to be, with us, a partner and a companion, as we seek to live more generously and faithfully the responsibilities of our calling as priests, persons living the consecrated life, married persons, widowed persons or single persons dedicated to the Lord by chastity and self-giving.
As we congratulate you, our jubilee couples, for your witness of gospel love in your marriages, we entrust you and ourselves to our Blessed Mother. Today's gospel reading projects before us the wedding at Cana. We see so clearly the solicitude of Our Lady for the newly-married couple, who were on the brink of being embarrassed during their wedding reception because the wine had run out. Mary interceded for them with Her Son who performed His first miracle in answer to His Mother's request. How closely Our Lady is to all married couples, especially to you who today are observing your golden and silver anniversaries! How fitting that we celebrate marriage jubilees in this month dedicated to her! How loved are married couples, since Jesus chose to perform His first miracle at a wedding.
Dear Jubilarians and dear married couples all, with Mary's prayer assisting you, open your hearts to the Lord Jesus everyday, so that He may transform the water of your human love into the wine of Gospel love " the love you need to continue to live in gratitude the holy and marvelous vocation to which He has called you.
Dear Jubilarians, as we thank you once again for your witness, each one of us here recommits himself or herself to the vocation God has given us, asking the help of Our Blessed Lady to become, with you, witnesses to the Gospel of Truth and Hope, of Peace and Justice, and of Life and Love.
