A wedding homily
Given at St. Patrick's Church
On Saturday July 23, 2011
By Rev Fr. Ronnie P. Floyd
When he finally met GOD, he asks GOD if he can ask him a few questions about women.
GOD smiled and said, "sure, go right ahead".
"OK," the man says. "Why did you make women so beautiful?"
GOD says, "So you would be attracted to and like them."
"OK, but how come you made them so gentle and nurturing?"
To which God replied: "So you would learn to LOVE them.”
The man ponders a moment and then asks, "But why did you make them such airheads?"
GOD says, "So they would be foolish enough to put up with you
just long enough to learn to love you!
In the book of Genesis we read that God created man, in His image and likeness God created him, male and female God created them.
Giving us a body, to touch and feel and learn with,
God created us in His image and likeness,
And this image and likeness is not a physical resemblance
But a spiritual likeness.
St. John tells us God is Love, and so we are in God’s image
In that each of us has the freedom and ability to love.
Love is what the world is all about,
love is why we exist,
love is the answer to all our problems and prayers
And yet love is so often absent from the world.
Because while God gives us the ability to love,
love can only exist in freedom, we must choose to love
this image must be put into action in order for us to be like God.
And this is difficult, because despite the frequency
that we use and throw around that word: LOVE
Ultimately most people can’t imagine what true love means.
Think about it we use the same word to talk about chocolate or pizza
That we use to talk about our family.
Hopefully we don’t love these two things in the same way
Because if we did it would give a whole new meaning
to having our family for diner—[very “silence of the lambs”]
A thirteen year old may “love” his first girlfriend,
but we all know that this love is mostly
physical attraction, emotions, and hormones
which eventually fade whereas true love is not just long lasting,
but forever.
Sadly, even many of those who come together
and vow themselves to each other in marriage
“till death do us part”
end up breaking their word to each other,
because they didn’t know what love truly meant and requires!
All of us from the youngest here to the oldest
Are still learning about love,
and until the day we die school is in session
As Jesus tells us in the Gospel, “from the beginning”
God created marriage and the family to be a elite prep school of love.
Preparing each and every one of us to love and be loved forever.
And when Jesus was born to remind the world what true love means,
to remind mankind what it means to be made in His image and likeness
he made marriage a Sacrament, a sign,
through which Christians could participate in
and bear witness to His perfect act of Love on the Cross.
In doing so He gave the Church and married couples the grace to love,
Not just like an animal who selfishly picks a mate
But like Christ who selflessly died for His bride the Church.
If you want to know what love means,
all you need to do is meditate on the Cross.
As Paul does in the famous passage from the 13th chapter
of the first letter to the Corinthians where he tells us:
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.
Sadly you are not always patient
And you will not always be kind,
Jealousy may rear its ugly head
And perhaps from time to time
you might get pompous or rude with each other.
Love may bear all things, but the temptation for both of you will
be to get fed up, and to consider allowing your love to fail at times.
You see we are not saints,
and no matter how much you think you love each other
right now in this moment,
you don’t love each other enough for “the worse”
you are about to promise to love each other
for better or for worst till death does you part.
The temptation for us on this beautiful day when we are all dressed up
is to consider only the better and not the worst,
but the worst is important to think about too,
because its in the worst of times
that you their family and friends will need to give them
their most important wedding gift: your lover, support, and prayers
and because its in the worst of times, that if you cling to love
making a choice not to let love fail no matter what
that your love, weak as it is now, will grow so much stronger.
Jesus Christ has made the natural bond of marriage a Sacrament
A great mystery as St. Paul calls it in his letter to the Galatians,
Through which a husband learns to live the love of Christ
And wife learns to response as the Church responds to Christ.
Through this sacrament and your married life
God will help you become kind and patient and understanding,
He will help you grow in holiness and become Saints,
God is Love, and if you allow Him into your hearts and home,
He will transform you both over time
Into great lovers.
One of the most beautiful things I see as a priest
is love in difficult moments:
the newly weds struggling to survive in tough times
the young mother or father pacing the halls with a sick child
a father on his knees crying and praying when His family is in danger
the elderly couple gazing lovingly into each others eyes,
more in love now than ever after 5 or six decades together.
Remember its only in contrast to the sourness of the lemon that the sweetness of sugar tastes so refreshing on a hot day like today.
God is the sweetness
God is Love, if your faith makes you ready to take a risk on love,
I invite you to come forward now to express your intentions before God, your family, friends, and the whole Church
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