‘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.