Professional Documents
Culture Documents
[Music]
00:13
well this a few weeks ago I had the
00:15
great good pleasure of presiding at the
00:16
wedding of my niece Brenna and her
00:18
husband Nelson and it was a great joy
00:21
because of course I've known Brenna all
00:22
her life and she's always been a great
00:25
person full of joy and cheerfulness and
00:27
goodness and then Nelson have I known
00:30
now for a couple years a very good man
00:32
and also took the courageous step to
00:34
become a Catholic in advance of this of
00:36
this day so the two of them are a great
00:39
couple
00:39
everyone in the church was exalting in
00:42
their and their goodness and just to see
00:43
this young couple love terrific but the
00:46
point I made in my homily was we're not
00:49
here because here's this beautiful young
00:50
couple and love because any romantic any
00:53
secular romantic could look in and see
00:55
the same thing we were gathered in
00:58
church because we saw them with the eyes
01:02
of faith and that means we saw them as a
01:04
hint or a sign or an echo of God's love
01:09
of Christ's love for the church you know
01:13
it's a peculiarity of Catholic
01:14
sacramental theology that a married
01:16
couple don't so much receive a sacrament
01:19
as they become a sacrament I just tell
01:23
people when I was doing a parish work
01:25
full time and I was working with young
01:27
engaged couples at the time we were all
01:29
about the same age I was in my like
01:30
upper 20s at the time but I would always
01:32
ask them at some point how come you guys
01:34
want to get married in church and they'd
01:36
usually say some version of well because
01:39
we love each other and I would say well
01:40
that's great I'm delighted you love each
01:42
other but that's not reason to get
01:44
married Church to be one love to get
01:46
married under on the beach in front of
01:47
the justice of the peace you get married
01:49
in church when you're convinced that God
01:52
has brought you together for His
01:56
purposes so the people gathered the
02:00
other day for my niece's wedding would
02:02
say this young couple did not come
02:04
together just by dumb chance but rather
02:07
they were brought together by God's
02:09
providence for God's purposes and that's
02:12
what we were celebrating that day
02:13
in church now to get a clearer sense of
02:16
this I suggested in my homily that we
02:19
should look with fresh eyes at the great
02:21
story of the wedding feast at Cana so
02:25
famously in John's Gospel the first sign
02:27
the first miraculous sign that Jesus
02:29
performs is not the raising of a dead
02:31
it's not the comedy of a storm at sea
02:33
it's not the healing of a blind person
02:35
the first sign he performs is providing
02:39
wine at a local wedding reception now
02:42
every one of his brother has commented
02:44
over the centuries how wonderful how
02:46
charming that Jesus you know Stoops to
02:49
do this very simple thing to help this
02:51
distressed couple and sure I mean I
02:54
won't deny that but I think we have to
02:57
look a lot deeper because what we see
03:00
there is this great motif of Jesus the
03:04
bridegroom Jesus who is the God of
03:07
Israel made flesh comes as the
03:10
bridegroom to marry his people now to
03:14
get that fully take a step back into the
03:17
Old Testament look in the prophet Isaiah
03:20
Isaiah relays this extraordinary line if
03:24
you look in the history of religions and
03:25
religious philosophy you won't see
03:27
anything quite like it it seems to me
03:28
when the God of Israel says or Isaiah
03:31
says of him your builder wants to marry
03:35
you
03:36
now again I think spend a little time
03:39
even in prayer with that line your
03:43
builder meaning the Creator the one who
03:45
designed you and created you God wants
03:49
to marry you now I mean every religion
03:52
and religious philosophy will talk about
03:54
God will talk about our relation to God
03:56
following the demands of God all of that
03:58
but here we've got the distinctively
04:01
biblical approach that God wants to
04:05
marry us that means to share his life
04:09
with us in the most intimate life-giving
04:12
faithful way possible when they were
04:15
looking for the great metaphor for this
04:18
faithful life-giving intensely personal
04:21
love they reached for the metaphor of
04:24
the wedding of the marriage
04:26
your builder wants to marry you God
04:29
wants to share his life utterly with us
04:34
now press it in that same prophet Isaiah
04:37
we hear that when the Messiah comes
04:39
there'll be this great banquet the
04:42
beautiful description on the holy
04:43
mountain there'll be these fine meats
04:46
served and then pure choice wine will be
04:51
served and indeed we hear there'll be so
04:54
much wine that the very hills will run
04:57
with it okay okay
04:59
against that background look again at
05:02
the wedding feast of Cana you don't just
05:05
have you know Jesus being a nice guy and
05:07
helping out this young couple he is the
05:11
God of Israel made flesh and he presents
05:14
himself in his first sign as the
05:17
bridegroom of his people mind you it was
05:20
the responsibility of the bridegroom at
05:23
a wedding reception to provide the wine
05:24
which is why the steward when he taste
05:27
the water made wine comes to the
05:29
bridegroom he says hey what are you
05:31
doing
05:31
most people serve the the good wine
05:35
first then when people have drunk a bit
05:36
they serve the bad wine you've gone
05:38
ahead and served the good wine last
05:41
Jesus in other words is the definitive
05:45
bridegroom come to marry his people
05:48
another step we hear John gives us the
05:52
details how much wine was made he said
05:55
there were six stone jars each one
05:57
holding about thirty gallons of water so
06:01
Jesus makes a hundred and eighty gallons
06:04
of wine what we're meant to see is the
06:08
Isaiah prophecy has come true that when
06:11
the bridegroom comes the Messiah the
06:13
very hills will run with wine this is
06:17
the full meaning it seems to me of the
06:19
wedding feast at Cana and this is
06:21
exactly what we're meant to see now in a
06:24
married couple that's why we come into
06:26
church we see them as a hint a sign a
06:29
sacrament of that love just one last
06:34
observation I mentioned how Jesus first
06:36
great sign is turning water into wine
06:39
now it's
06:40
ordinary wonderful that is how
06:41
symbolically resident it is but then at
06:45
the wedding mass so after I finished the
06:47
homily we move into the Liturgy of the
06:49
Eucharist which culminates in what not
06:53
just the transformation of water into
06:55
wine as marvelous as that is but now the
06:57
transformation of wine into the very
06:59
blood of Jesus which will now be poured
07:02
out on behalf of the people gathered
07:05
there and even more extraordinary
07:07
wedding banquet is being hosted by the
07:12
Son of God right so every mass is not
07:14
you know Robert Barron presiding at
07:17
something it's Christ I'm acting simply
07:20
in Persona Christi in the person of
07:22
Christ its Christ hosting a banquet at
07:25
which he is serving his very body and
07:28
blood acting as the bridegroom come to
07:33
marry his people that's what we see
07:37
that's what we see whenever two people
07:39
get married in church and that is reason
07:44
to celebrate
07:46
[Music]
The Light of Faith: The Sacrament of Matrimony