Untitled Homily

At the end of our second reading Paul writes:

This is a great mystery,

I’d like to speak briefly about the word mystery, as used here. If you were to read this in the original Greek it would be rendered as “tὸ mystírion”, “the mystery.” Our English word comes to us directly from the Greek. If you were to read that verse in the Latin Vulgate Bible it would be rendered as “sacramentum.” I don’t want to go too deep into a word study here, but this shows us how we get the word “sacrament” into the English language and, indeed, into the language of the Church.

Again, briefly: The Catholic church teaches that there are seven sacraments (mysteries; in fact, in the Eastern Churches they still refer to their sacraments as mysteries.) And here is an interesting tidbit about sacraments in the Catholic Church. Every sacrament has an ordinary minister. All of them, but one, require an ordained cleric as this minister. The one that doesn’t is holy matrimony. The ordinary ministers of Holy Matrimony are actually the bride and the groom. Father Healy and I are here to receive your consent in the name of the Church and to invoke the Church’s blessing on your marriage, but we are not the “ministers” of the sacrament. All sacraments also require “valid matter”, i.e. water for baptism, the bread and wine for the eucharist. And for holy matrimony the valid matter is the man and the woman, and their freely given consent.

So that’s what we’re here to celebrate today. We are celebrating what Paul refers to as this “great mystery”, this great “sacramentum” as our ministers, Brynna and James, give their consent before the Church. Ok, enough of Catholic ed …. !!!

In our first reading God makes woman out of the side of the first man to be his companion. All the other creatures had failed the test, so God put the man in to a deep sleep and took a rib out of his side and created a woman. He didn’t create her above, or below, but out of his side to be equal in dignity with the man. Then we’re told:

That is why a man leaves his father and mother

and clings to his wife,

and the two of them become one body.

That sounds pretty mysterious right there …

Paul reiterates that in slightly different words:

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother

and be joined to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.

Again, this mysterious idea of becoming one flesh. We can certainly think of this in terms of procreation where the child is the way the man and woman become one flesh. We can also speak of the unitive aspect of the conjugal act and how it fosters a tremendous intimacy between the man and the woman. But if we’re being honest, there is still a good deal of mystery there. … He goes on to tell us what he means by mystery:

This is a great mystery,

but I speak in reference to Christ and the Church.

The church has always understood this to mean that when a man and a woman enter into this mystery of holy matrimony, this sacramentum, it’s not just about their oneness. It’s greater than that. It becomes a union that images the oneness between Christ and His bride, the Church. You could say that this is the whole story of the bible, that it’s all about a marriage: a marriage of Adam and Eve in the very first book of the bible, Genesis, and finally a marriage between Christ and His Church as shown in the very last book of the bible, Revelation. Near the end of his apocalyptic vision John recounts to us that the New Jerusalem, in other words the Church, is coming down from Heaven adorned as a bride.

As James and Brynna give their consent, and enter into this great mystery, they are not just doing it privately, for their own benefit. They are also enacting a cosmic mystery, a drama both human and divine, wherein they become the very likeness of the marriage between Christ and His Church.

Ok … maybe this all sounds a bit abstract, but in the end we can say … Marriage is a wonderful adventure. I can stand here before you and say that I have never been happier in my marriage than I am today. It only gets better if you let it. But, in truth, marriage is not always a walk in the park. In fact, marriage can be incredibly difficult. There may even be times when you want to call it quits.

And when it gets hard, it’s good to remember that sacraments not only have ministers and matter but they confer grace. Grace is defined as the gift of God’s own life to the recipient of the sacrament. That’s really the secret to long term success. We all fail, we all stumble and fall, and sometimes it is really difficult to get back up. This is where our Gospel reading comes in. Jesus gives us a plan for living out a sacramental life.

Remain in my love.

If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love,

just as I have kept my Father’s commandments

and remain in his love.

So, if we keep his commandments, we will remain in his love. How do we do that? Well first we must know what they are, and we do own the responsibility for educating ourselves, but at the end of our gospel reading He gives us a great place to start:

This is my commandment: love one another as I love you.

This is so important to remember. Jesus first loved us. Jesus loves you Brynna and James … He loved you so much that He was willing to die for you, for all of us. He gave his life for us, and He continues to give His life to us in the sacraments. He shows us that love is all about sacrificing oneself for the good of the other.

This is a great mystery … sacrificial love. And this is the mystery that you, Brynn and James, are about to enter into. And here’s the thing. Our sacraments are not just about happiness in this life, or at least not only about that. All gathered here and the whole Church dowish you all the happiness you can find in this life. But all sacraments are oriented to happiness in the next life, everlasting happiness. As you both act as ministers in this wonderful sacrament of Holy Matrimony, in a very real way you become the sacrament for each other. That means you can each become the means of grace for the other to achieve everlasting happiness. As both a deacon and as your father Bryn, and very soon your Father-in-law, James, I would like to let you know that it is my deepest hope that your highest goal is to help each other get to heaven. No pressure …. But don’t forget. … When things get tough, you are not alone. You have each other, and you have all of us gathered here, and other friends and family, but above all you have God Himself, given to you in the sacrament. He won’t force Himself on you, but he is always there, gently knocking … waiting for the door to be opened.