Loving one another as Jesus loved us, is not easy!
In the coming weeks of July, I have a couple of weddings for nephews and their brides. One nephew will be married in Appleton, and the other in Michigan, not far from Ann Arbor. I will not to be gone for long for the Appleton wedding, just Saturday, July 16. The Michigan wedding will require me to be gone the whole weekend of July 30-31. Only 15 nieces and nephews remain!
Those who preparing for the Sacrament of Marriage remind me that they are fulfilling a special vocation. Marriage is not a possession of two people, as if it is a private thing. When two people marry in the Church, they are promising to share the love of God with others. The abundant gift of God’s love is not to be kept for themselves, but rather, given away. Children, community service, church ministry, works of charity, and, of course, the love they share with each other, are all ways by which the couple share God’s rich love. Moreover, each day God renews that love as an unending gift.
Married couples who read the above description may recognize it and smile. Others may wish that they would experience more of this dynamic. And for others, the eternally renewed gift of God’s love has been elusive, for many reasons. Some reasons may include their own failure to see marriage as an act of generosity; or, the lack of maturity of the couple; or, a failure to cultivate a relationship with God and with the community of faith; or, being overwhelmed by worldly goals and material desires; or, the attempt to imitate other married couples who have no faith in God, instead of modeling their lives on Jesus, the Christ, etc.
I think that it is difficult to live a successful Sacrament of married love in marriage. Loving your neighbor as yourself is not easy! Loving one another as Jesus loved us, is not easy! However, it is not God who makes it difficult to live a good and faithful Christ-like life. We make it hard on ourselves. We cannot blame God for our human failures, for our unwillingness to love and to convert from former ways.
Married life is intense. It is a profound expression of God’s love in us. We must respond with appropriate intensity! Married love is meant to grow, to evolve, adjust and advance. The vowed commitments that a couple make in their marriage vows are not a one-time promise. Those vows express a response to the dynamic love of God. The wife and husband must be dynamic in their love for each other and the world around them.
God’s love is abundant. May we see that love in married couples. May married couples share God’s love!
Peace, Fr. Andy