Saturday evening, we celebrated the wedding of Rachel Parker and Josh Brewer at St Mary Catholic Church in Yazoo City. Our prayers and best wishes go out to the happy couple. Below is the homily -
We joyfully come together this evening here at
St Mary Catholic Church in Yazoo City to celebrate the sacrament of marriage of
Rachel and Josh. The readings that both
of you have chosen from Holy Scripture say so much about what God teaches us
about marriage, so much about the hopes and dreams that you both have for the
life you will share together as husband and wife.
From the book of Tobit, Tobiah and Sarah are
alone together on the night after their wedding; they pray to God to bless
their marriage.
Tobiah
and Sarah acknowledge that their marriage not only fulfills their love for each
other and their desire to be husband & wife, but that their marriage comes
from God, that their marriage is instituted by God. So, in their prayer, Tobiah and Sarah pray to
God, saying: “It is you who created Adam, you who created Eve his wife, to be
his help & support. It was you who
said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone.’” Because they know in their
hearts that their marriage comes from God, Sarah & Tobiah pray confidently
to God, asking for his help in their marriage.
As they ask God to be kind to them & to let them grow to old age
together, I know that this is the hope that you, Rachel and Josh, have today as
you are joined together by God as husband and wife. You both have a lot of hope
for the future you will have together. May
you never forget that God is at the center of your marriage, at the center of
your life together.
St. Paul describes a view of love that is
founded in Jesus’ teachings, an ideal of how we should all love in our lives. Paul tells us that our love for one another
should be patient & kind, how it shouldn’t be selfish or jealous or rude. We
grow into this way to love. It is a love
that is perhaps very different from the way our secular world views love, as it
is a love that is often forged out of hard work and journeying together.
I
know that you both have learned a lot about love from your families and friends,
and from each other. Rachel and Josh, you’ve expressed how you know
how easy it is to get caught up in your daily lives, in the busy-ness and
motions of living. You want to make sure that you always have the time and
attention and love to give to one another as husband and wife, no matter
what. You want to be a light to the
world, as Jesus asks us to be in the Gospel reading you’ve chosen. You want to never forget the happiness that
you have now, to build on that happiness in the life you will have together.
Rachel and Josh, as all of your family and loved
ones gathered here this evening are praying for both of you with our whole
hearts, we pray that your marriage may reach the heights of Paul’s
understanding of love and marriage, that your love for each other may rejoice
in the truth of God through honesty and self-giving. We pray that your love for
each other will continue to be an experience of the love that God has for us. To
achieve this love, never forget the light of your faith that is shining in both
of you. It will be the foundation of the
life you will have together.
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