When
Prince Charles got engaged to a young Diana Spencer, a member of the press
asked him if they were in love. He
looked eerily hesitant as he gave his reply: “Yes… I suppose… whatever ‘love’
means!” His remark was politely derided
(as only the British press can politely deride), but I think he was actually
being rather honest: I don’t think most people really do know what love means.
John
and Maria: show us what love means.
That’s why we’ve been drawn here to celebrate today. It’s not because of the beautiful music, or
my hopefully passable homily, or the cake, or the deejay, or the photo
ops. All of those things only carry
value if they reflect and clarify what truly brought us here today: love. Today, tomorrow and till death do you part:
show us what love means.
We ask
that of you today, because we need it.
Because the world, while created good, can seem dark and cold, but love
has flames of a blazing fire, as our first reading reminded us. Today, it’s a particularly brilliant fire. Over time, its intensity may vary, but we
need that flame alight and so do you.
Today,
you’re setting yourselves as a seal on each other’s hearts: cementing
sacramentally the imprint that your love has already begun to make on each
other. Print deeply; remain close to one another, heart to heart, for through
another’s heart-print, great sanctification is possible. This commitment, this total gift of self is
so powerful, that it can be scary.
There’ll be times when all the good words and well-meant theology in the
world won’t make it easy. That’s the
other reason why we’re here: this community of your friends, family and loved
ones is here to pledge their support and assistance as you live out this
beautiful vocation to be printed, to be dented, by love.
We’re
also here to pray, because this is a lot to ask of you, to be a sign of love in
an alienated world. But we pray, because
you don’t have to make this dance up as you go along: the love you are to live
out is not an untrod path, it’s a person – our God who is Love. The God who loves us, who no-one has ever
seen, our second reading tells us, wants love to light up the world, to be brought
to perfection by being made visible. He
made it visible in His son, and Christ will make love visible in you. That’s the big ask we make today: we want to
encounter love in you; but we ask that assured that you will encounter God in
your love!
As
your love sparks fire after fire, it will bear fruit, fruit that will
last. You don’t have to be parents together
to be fruitful. My prayer is that people
will look at you and say, “You know how John and Maria love each other? That helps me understand how God loves
us.” See that cross? Your love must look like that. That’s what love means. Love like crazy; love like Christ. In giving your life over to love, you’ll rise
to new life and you just might take us with you.
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