The sacrament of bride and groom
"Mr. Smith, I have reviewed this case very carefully," the divorce court judge said, "and I've decided to give your wife $275 a week." "That's very fair, your honour," the husband said. "And every now and then I'll try to send her a few bucks myself."
Scarcely six months after his marriage, a man complained bitterly about his wife and decided to break up with her, He said he was sure that he had made a mistake in marrying her. She was not the wife of his dreams. Men forget that on their wedding day they are commissioned for a new task. That is why they are called groom on their wedding day.
Similarly, on her wedding day the woman is not called wife but bride. She has not played the role of wife up to now. The word groom has to do with patiently nurturing, teaching, tending and helping someone become what he or she should be. A search for the origin of the word bride leads to “a woman about to become a wife and mother”. That takes time and patient tending. Similarly, a woman, too, needs to be patient as she helps her partner become a good husband and father.
A wedding photo went viral on the internet. In it we see a groom and a bride sitting next to each other, holding hands. They do not look at each other, the young woman cries while the man looks down. What can that mean? Did he offend her just before the ceremony? Did he change his mind? Not at all!
Corporal Caleb Earwood wished to have a moment of prayer with his future wife before he married. The prayer was dedicated to their future marriage. And following a tradition that says that the groom should not see the bride before the wedding, the two did not look at each other, just held hands. And they prayed together. The man who took the photo confessed that this was one of the most emotional moments he captured in his entire career as a wedding photographer.
When I was married fifty-five years ago I was sure of a few things: I was certain I had made the right choice in my wife; I was certain that I was addressing a sense of incompleteness in my life that can only be filled by another or by God, and I knew I had the ability to dream and to create in the beautiful freedom of Christian love. I did not know of the tremendous gifts my wife and I would receive as we tried to carry out our vocation. I speak here of children and God’s Grace.
God is the essential third party to a happy marriage – a trinity of sorts. Where we are hungry, God is full. St. Augustine said that in the highest part of our nature we see traces of the Trinity, an image of God. We have “memory, understanding and love,” and yet we are but one. The mystery deepens as we multiply this identity by joining to another.
Saint John Paul II said, of marriage the family, like the Church, ought to be a place where the Gospel is transmitted. Christian marriage is, in itself, a liturgical action glorifying God in Jesus Christ and in the Church. Christian parents have the specific responsibility of educating their children in prayer, introducing them to the gradual discovery of the mystery of God and to personal dialogue with Him.
(585 words)
