Today, Sunday, February 13 is National Marriage Day, and we begin National Marriage Week. What is it that we are celebrating? It is not just Valentine’s Day. We celebrate that God himself ordains the sacrament of Marriage, and shares with us in the marriage relationship between husband and wife a glimpse of how Christ loves each of us, together His Church. The Book of Genesis tells us that “In the beginning God created them male and female, and for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and the two shall become one flesh.” This has always been God’s plan to teach us how to love as we should, and with Him, to create new life so that life and love will continue to flourish.
Good news to share, more young people are coming to be married in our parish this year than last, and the interest is greater as well. More and more young people are coming to know the true freedom that a permanent commitment brings and are not as caught up with the fleeting idea that freedom means always doing what ever you wish. It is truly when one makes a commitment for life, one to the other, that love is enhanced and able to completely be manifest. We all pray this week for those who are married, for those who have been married, for those contemplating marriage. May God encourage all to make the choice to love, and if you are called to make the choice to love another in fidelity to each other, open to God’s plan for expanding His creation with new life, may you be blessed with His presence each and every day. May we all be led to have hearts filled with love.