Celebrating a wedding of cultures

Today, we had the great privilege of celebrating an inter-faith wedding: between a Hindu and a Roman Catholic.  This moment provided us with a fortunate moment to realize the depth of the treasure that is our faith, and an opportunity to challenge all those who were present to allow themselves to be effective witnesses of the gospel.

Chosen ones

Aviral and Lida, you both come from a land that is filled with a very long history, one that is rich in tradition.  Your families and genealogical lineages can be traced to very different regions and very different religious beliefs and practices, yet today, you have come to this Church to give voice to the work that God has been accomplishing in you.  Together, you ask for God’s blessing as you begin a new chapter in your lives.  In this church, many other couples have done the same thing: they have come to seek God’s blessing and to celebrate the happiness that they have found.

The words you will speak and the rituals we will observe in just a few moments are very important: they carry with them deep significance for the life that you are beginning.  This significance was first explained in the land of your ancestors by Saint Thomas and by Saint Francis Xavier.  These two disciples, though they lived at different times in our history, continued the work that Jesus himself began: the act of teaching others about his Father and our Father, about the power of love and about the ways we should always strive to live our lives, motivated by love (cf Col 3:14).

This morning, we have heard an excerpt from the letter Saint Paul wrote to the early Christians living in the Turkish town of Colossea.  Even then, it was not Paul but one of his disciples – Ephapras – who first introduced the residents of that town to the person of Jesus.  Paul wrote his letter as additional support, to encourage those who had come to believe the words they had heard.

Like Ephapras, you are being invited today to be witnesses of Christ’s love to one another and in the world.  Today, he reminds you that you are God’s chosen ones … and that you must always clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience (Col 3:12).  These are the characteristics by which we are all called to live.  At the end of each day, before we lay down to sleep, we could use these words to measure the success of our attempts to be people of faith: have I shown compassion to someone today? Did I show kindness to anyone?  Was I patient in my dealings with others today?  Above all, have I succeeded in fulfilling these traits toward those I love the most, including my husband/my wife?

This person, who today you will be joined to in the unbreakable bond of marriage was created by God only for you.  The Book of Genesis tells us that as God created each one of the animals that roams the earth, Adam worked with him, naming them all, searching for a suitable helper who could be his partner for life (cf Gn 2:20), but when at last he found her, he exclaimed with great joy: This at last is … the one who shall be called Woman (Gn 2:23), and from that day onward, the story continues: husbands and wives cling to one another and become one (cf Gn 2:24).

Today is a day of great joy for you, and so it should be, but not every day of your married lives will be filled with such joy.  When the questions arise, listen again to the words of advice spoken in the Gospel of Saint Matthew.  Try to hear them with the ears of your hearts and pray for the wisdom to discover the truth they teach in the person God has chosen for you and entrusted to your care.  Try always to be poor in spirit (cf Mt 5:3), seeking first and foremost the best interests of your spouse.  Endeavour always to be meek and merciful (Mt 5:5-7) toward all those who walk the roads of life together with you.  Strive always to be pure of heart (Mt 5:8), single-minded in your resolve to be peacemakers (Mt 5:9) whenever there should be conflict in your lives or in the lives of those around you.  Mourn with those who must face the tragedies that sometimes are part of life (cf Mt 5:4) and be constant in asking God for the great blessing of an undying hunger for justice (Mt 5:6).  Then you will also be able to recognize the many ways the Lord needs you to be sources of his light, his love, his forgiveness and his mercy in the world.

If you seek always to let the Word of God dwell richly within you (Col 3:16), you will indeed cultivate the grace of gratitude in your hearts.  The result will be that you will soon find yourselves constantly giving thanks to God (Col 3:17) and through you, those who have the privilege of knowing you will also discover the treasure of God’s word, a word of truth, a word of love, a word of mercy that is always at work in our lives.