Christ will show his love through John and Maria – Song 8:6-7a; 1 John 4:7-12; John 15:12-16

With wedding season firmly upon, and quite a few friends having upcoming nuptials this summer, I thought I'd share a wedding homily I wrote for liturgical celebration class.  It was written for a 'generic' older couple (fake names).  Song 8:6-7a; 1 John 4:7-12; John 15:12-16.

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.