On this Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we
celebrate World Marriage Day. Ironically, the readings are not about marriage,
but about the mystery of Christ, a friend of outcasts, who does the unthinkable
by touching the untouchable out of compassion and God’s loving care. This
coming week, we also celebrate one of the legends from the third century, St.
Valentine who also did the unthinkable by daring the Roman Emperor. Valentine was
a young priest who was martyred in Rome because the Emperor had issued a decree
delaying marriage for young men in order to send then into the military. He
argued that the unmarried ones proved to be better soldiers. Valentine defied
the emperor’s orders and out of compassion continued to perform marriages of
young men and women, but one day he was caught and martyred. What the saint was
doing out of compassion was to bring about healing of the human heart that
yearns for fulfilment. The Church celebrates marriage precisely in order to
bring about that deeper healing that only the Sacrament of Marriage can bring
about. Marriage is a communion of two persons, a man and a woman, whose love is
configured to and shaped by, the very love and compassion Jesus reveals in the
healing he performs in today’s Gospel.
Therefore, the love that forms the
communion between husband and wife is the same healing and compassionate love
of Jesus who joins every couple together for the healing of their body and
spirit. That is why we call marriage a sacrament. Marriage as a sacrament makes
the love and compassion of Jesus Christ intimately present. Christian marriage
is in fact a participation in God’s economy of healing love that comes from
Jesus Christ in the sacrament of marriage. In married love, God’s grace
continually brings about that mutual healing and compassion that Jesus
proclaims in today’s Gospel. It is not just about healing of sickness, but
about the healing of our human yearning for communion that is anticipated
through the sacrament of marriage. The Sacrament of Matrimony is therefore a
foretaste of God’s eternal love, which is the goa of all human beings. We all
yearn for love, and we will only be completely fulfilled in love when we rest
in God.
On this World Day of Marriage, the Church
offers an opportunity to all married couples to strengthen their bond of
communion in a society where marriage is under attack from all sides. Whatever
it takes to strengthen your union with each other and with Christ, do it. The
old saying of Father Patrick Payton is still valid today as it was in the nineteen
fifties. “The family that prays together remains together.” 1) The central
message of this Sunday is that Jesus out of compassion can touch, heal and strengthen
every marriage with his grace. 2) But like all the people who were touched and
healed by Christ in the gospels, we must never be ashamed of our weakness and
need to be healed in our married relationships. 3) If ever we find our marriage
on the rocks, we must never remain there but go forward seeking healing from
Jesus, and he will once again pour out into your hearts the Father mercy and
that youso badly desire. I am Msgr. John Mbinda. God bless you.
©2018 John S. Mbinda
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