A sermon starter on Catholic Marriage

WEDDING    ---  RUEL & NOELLA

SERMON POINTS.

·       Catholic Marriage is – Sacrament ie.  A vocation ordained by God.

·       Therefore a Sacred Calling – You have not chosen me,  but I have chosen you, says God.

·       The  Nuptial pledge is not a mutual consent, between the couple only, but a promise to God.

·       Therefore a Sacred Vow, a  Public Promise seriously made in God’s presence and witnessed to by His Priest and community and then registered and recognised  in civil society.

·       Catholic  Marriage therefore  is first blessed and sanctioned here on God’s altar and later may be also  celebrated in a social reception with the cutting of the cake, the dance & dinner, etc.

·       Marriages in Church are sacred and it is important for us Catholics to attend the Nuptials in the Church and not limit our participation to the social reception in the hall.

·       This is precisely why  Ruel & Noella, their parents, relatives  and friends are gathered here, to witness to the Sacredness of the Marriage of this happy Couple.

·       Again, Catholic Marriage as a Sacrament is an external SIGN of internal GRACE   –  and that Sign is a manifest  LOVE  for each other  which God has planted in the hearts of every husband and wife. While the Marriage formula always concluded “till death do us part”, the recent easy break up of couples seems to have changed the formula to: Till marriage do us part.

·       Love in married life is sacred and has to be genuine and self sacrificing, like the love of Jesus who lay down his life for us.  The Marriage pledge says: “In good times and in bad times , in sickness and it health”  Yes, unless husband and wife are determined to live and lay down their life for each other, it will remain selfish and vanish.

·       The sacredness of Marriage demands Fidelity from the start in order to build trust and confidence between husband and wife and avoid the rocks of doubt and suspicion on which many a marriage which started well, have  crashed.

·       The Family of Nazareth which is so much in focus in this Christmas  season, is a lesson on a Happy and  Holy Married Life. For the saintly couple, Joseph and Mary,  the Joy of Christmas was Jesus and Jesus only. Hence the stable and inconvenience of Bethlehem did not matter.

·       Catholic Marriages  built on good housing and fat financial  incomes but lacking the presence of Christ in the home are bound to crack and crumble. And hence the place of prayer and worship of God in the lives of husbands and wives who meet Him together.

·       A  final important aspect of marriages is well expressed by the poet Khalil Gibran who advised lovers:                                                                 “Let there be spaces in your togetherness;

And let the winds of heaven dance between you”.

Too many marriages today suffer from a congestion of space that makes a slave of the partners.

·       Jesus put it even better when He said : Love one another as I have loved you. In His Love for his disciples he provided them much space to be free and independent to follow him. He respected, trusted understood and even forgave them.  If  True Marriage  is to grow, there must be enough  space to grow for each partner – spaces of respect, trust, compassion and forgiveness in married life.

·       Dear Ruel and Noella, as you embark on the sacred path of matrimonial life, we surround you with our prayer  and share your hope that your Marriage will truly be what God intended  and Jesus and Mary blessed by their presence at the Cana marriage.  As at Cana, may JESUS be the Miracle of your Marriage, making it a Sacrament of of sacrificial love,  lasting peace, and fidelity unto death and then beyond to eternal bliss.