12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Bishop of Lake Charles
June 23, 2013
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Wedding Anniversary Celebration
Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
“But who do you say that I am?” Luke 9:20
The Diocese of Lake Charles joins me in welcoming to this Mass all of the couples who are celebrating their wedding anniversaries this year. You are joyfully celebrating 25, 40, 50 or more years of devoted and faithful living out of the vows you made before God. We are proud of you, and we are so happy for you. Most of all, God rejoices in you. And we desperately need your example in the world today.
God rejoices in you because you are witnessing to the natural union that He intended from the creation of this world. Our Lord said in the Gospel, “Have you not read that from the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, no human being must separate” (Matthew 19:4-6). There was a time when we could have taken for granted this elementary truth. It would have been as certain as trusting that the sun would rise tomorrow morning. However, there are corrupting influences that are present in our world and are increasingly eating away at objective truth, tradition, and virtue and replacing them with relativism and secularism. In so doing, truth is being made relative—your truth is not my truth. Tradition has become an enemy of freedom, and virtue is a relic of an oppressive past. We are forced to think this way because not to embrace this relativism is to be insensitive, callous and uncaring. This mentality is what Pope-emeritus Benedict XVI called “the dictatorship of relativism.” Marriage to this way of thinking is one option among many, and commitment to a loving spouse is an outdated remnant of an outmoded past. Marriage becomes another “whatever.” But you are different. You would not be here if you were not. And what makes you different?
In the Gospel today Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” (Luke 9:18). Notice the question. He wants to know first what the crowds think. The answer is, “John the Baptist; others, Elijah; still others, ‘One of the ancient prophets has arisen’” (Luke 9:19). Note well that all of these are important persons. John the Baptist had attracted great numbers preaching a baptism of repentance. Elijah was considered the greatest of prophets. Jesus is none of these. The crowds are wrong. So Jesus asks, “But who do you say that I am?” (Luke 9:20). Peter answers, “The Christ of God” (Luke 9:20). Jesus is greater than the greatest prophet. He is greater than the most important preacher of the day. He is the Messiah of God, God’s anointed one.
The major characteristic of secularism is that it seeks to replace God with something else—wealth, power, pleasure or fame. What makes you different is that you have said “no” to this tendency and “yes” to God. You have acknowledged that God is important to you in your lives. And you have done so by living out faithfully your commitment to one another in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer. You could not have done this without God’s help, and you know it. Without this faith in God, your marriage would have been something less than it was, and you know it.
When obstacles arose, you turned to God. When you had your first argument, you didn’t question whether or not you loved one another enough to remain married. You placed yourselves in the hands of God and you saw those low moments as an opportunity to mature in understanding of what it was God was calling you to become, as a devoted husband or wife.
I have celebrated a few hundred weddings in my priesthood. A few weeks ago I had dinner with a couple whom I had married twenty-five years ago. In our conversation there was one thing very apparent to me. They were very happy, not in a superficial way but in a very deep spiritual way. Finally, they told me, “We love each other more today than we did the day of our wedding.” I rejoiced with them, and above all, God rejoices. He rejoices in their faith that acknowledged Him and His presence in their lives. He rejoices in their children who are living evidence of their love for each other. He rejoices that they were able to say of Jesus with Peter, you are “The Christ of God.”
This is not an option, my dear friends, as though marriage had some other modes of expression, all of them equally commendable. Marriage is a privilege, a blessing to participate in the order of God’s creation, as God intended it. It is a response to the call of God, the embrace of a vocation, allowing it to be enriched with the grace of God building on the common, everyday experiences of a man and woman, raising them to an extraordinary level by a supernatural gift.
God bless all of you! Thank you for your witness. Continue to take seriously the movement of God’s grace in your lives. God loves you!