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Friday, November 8, 2019
11.10.19
Until Death Do Us Part
We have a lot of weddings at Christ the King Chapel - 9 so far in 2019 with 2 more before the year is done and 16 already booked for 2020. We are now booking into 2021. That’s a lot of wedding homilies for me, and usually on the same handful of readings. As you can imagine, it gets difficult to come up with original material. I try my best to work in what I know of the couple, but even that is a challenge as most of the couples I am marrying here were students after my time as a student and before I became chaplain. I mention all of this because the Gospel for this Sunday calls us to reflect on the nature of marriage, as the Sadducees ask Jesus about a woman who marries 7 brothers one after another as each preceding husband dies off: “At the resurrection whose wife will she be?” This is a particularly loaded question, as the Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection or any kind of afterlife as we understand it in the Christian tradition. As always, Jesus out maneuvers his opponents. He reminds them that marriage is something for this life: “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age of the resurrection of the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.” The correct answer to the question then is: “She will be no one’s wife in the resurrection.” To remind couples of this reality on their wedding day may be a bit of a downer, so I usually avoid it in my wedding homilies. What about eternal love after all? Love itself may be eternal, but marriage is simply a lifelong commitment (“until death do they part”). This is not to say that people who were married will not recognize their spouses as such in heaven and be grateful for them (for helping them get there), but they will no longer be married. Rather, we will all be part of a much bigger wedding as the collective “bride of Christ” at the wedding feast of the Lamb, the marriage of God and humanity. As someone who has chosen not to be married “for the sake of the kingdom,” it is good for me to be reminded of this too, as priestly celibacy is not merely or even primarily practical, but spiritual, to serve as a kind of witness to that day when we will “neither marry nor be given in marriage.” Whatever our marital status, let’s not forget whose we are above all else. --Fr. Thom
Busy Student Retreat November 10-14
Find yourself too busy? Need to take a break, but can't find the time? Join in our Busy Student Retreat! Commit to four days of just two 1/2 hour periods per day, one spent in prayer, and one in discussion with a spiritual guide, built around your schedule. We encourage you to sign up for a simple, yet powerful, retreat experience!
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