Joy and Hope Wedding Anniversary Mass (Cathedral of the Risen Christ, Lincoln)
Homily given by Most Rev. James D. Conley
February 11, 2018
Welcome to the annual Joy and Hope celebration in honor of World Marriage Day!
Today we honor 45 couples who are celebrating 10, 25, 40, and 50 or more years of marriage.
Thank you for your witness of fidelity to the Lord and to each other in and through the sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
We have been celebrating this Mass for over 20 years with a special Mass in the afternoon. Sometimes the Cathedral seemed a bit empty, so this year we decided to celebrate this important day within the context of a Sunday morning Mass. This makes it possible for parishioners here in the diocesan Mother Church to see and honor the example and witness of these faithful couples.
Within the context of the Sunday liturgy, these couples who are celebrating anniversaries will be invited to renew the commitment they may to each other on their wedding day.
We are also honoring couples who are celebrating anniversaries in all of our parishes throughout the Diocese of Lincoln. I look forward to meeting the honored couples and their families in a special reception after Mass in the Cathedral undercroft.
I would also like to recognize a new apostolate of young couples. Most have only been married five years. They have formed an outreach called Missionaries of the Holy Spirit in the Family.
The primary focus of the Missionaries of the Holy Spirit is to assist couples, under the guidance of a priest spiritual director to grow in their experience of the profound and personal love of the Blessed Trinity. Some of these young couples are former FOCUS missionaries. They commit themselves to meet monthly with a group of up to 12 couples who gather for a meal, pray with and for each other, and receive spiritual formation focused especially on the openness their love and the work of the Holy Spirit in their lives.
The readings today are particularly suited for the topic of marriage and remind us of our duty to support and promote good and healthy marriages and families.
St. John Paul II said, “so goes marriage and family, so goes culture and civilization.” The family is the foundational cell of society.
St. Paul wrote in his letter to the Corinthians: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.” We need witnesses, role models, and heroic examples of those who are living the faith. And it all starts at home. Blessed John Henry Cardinal Newman stated that, “next to the power of supernatural grace, the example and witness of virtue in another person is the greatest influence on the human soul.”
I would like to offer three reflections:
1) Prayer is important in the family. We are asked to answer the call of Our Lady of Lourdes to pray the Rosary in our own day and age. It is true that the “family that prays together, stays together.”
It is important that fathers pray, real and authentic prayer. A friend told me a story of when he was a child and, rowdy and misbehaving with his brother, he burst into the parents’ bedroom – to find his father kneeling in prayer at his bedside, hands folded and head bowed. The boy was moved by the sight and tiptoed back out of the room, and never forgot the power of that sight. Children need to see their parents pray.
Eucharistic Adoration is an important help to the family. Parents and grandparents can take grandchildren to adoration. Another friend told me how, when he was a child, his father would take him to adoration every week, late on Thursday nights. The boy would most often fall asleep in the pew, but sometimes he would just lie and watch his father, who had his eyes on Jesus, and knew this was something important.
2) Attentiveness and presence play an important role in family life. I encourage you to be attentive to your spouse. Technology can impede our attentiveness to others. Sometimes we need to put aside our technology and be present—to listen, really listen.
3) Forgiveness and healing also are necessary in family life. It takes humility to ask for forgiveness and to accept an apology. (Reference to the first reading, Lv 13:1-2, 44-46, and the Gospel, Mk 1:40-45) We are all wounded. It seems to be easier to hurt the ones who are closest to us. We need to seek healing in the Sacrament of Confession. We need to dialogue with each other. Some situations call for counseling. We have to be willing to do whatever it takes to reconcile.
In conclusion, the three important parts of family life I’ve mentioned are prayer, presence, and healing.
Lent begins on Wednesday. Make a good Lent.
