eda and pacifer - 42nd wedding anniversary

Today we come to celebrate enduring fruits and to consecrate enduring endeavours.  What do anniversaries celebrate?  What do we affirm when we celebrate anniversaries?  In anniversaries we celebrate enduring values, we affirm enduring commitments, we renew enduring struggles. 

There is a big difference between a contract and a covenant. In a contract, the terms are no longer binding when one party fails in his obligations.  A covenant is different however.  In a covenant when one party fails, the other party continues to remain faithful.  This is our relationship with God.  It is enduring no matter what.

When God decided to make us his children in baptism, that was it – he made up his mind, he will not take it back, he will not back out from the commitment he made, he will not take away the mark that marked us forever as God’s children, not even sin can make God change his mind.  He is our Father no matter what.  We are his children no matter what.  It is a commitment and it is enduring.

When God decided to send his Holy Spirit to each one of us during confirmation, that was it.  It becomes an enduring commitment.  God will not repent, God will not regret.  The Holy Spirit will have his abode in us even if he is now unwelcome, even if he is now ignored.  It is a commitment and it is enduring.

When God made us priests, that was it.  No amount of stupidity on our part can ever make us less of a priest in the eyes of God.  God may feel disappointment but disappointments cannot change God’s mind.  We are priests forever because God doesn’t back out from his call.  It is a commitment and it is enduring.

When God turns bread and wine into his body and blood in the Eucharist, that’s it.  Bread and wine become his body and blood.  He may be received by unworthy souls, but he will not withdraw.  He may be left alone on our tabernacles unvisited but he will not abandon or pull out. He will be there always.  It is a commitment and it is enduring.

When God called us to become his church that was it.  Throughout history men and women, priests and laity have many times made a mess of her.  Many have felt that God abandoned the church, many have felt that God is absent.  But God remained, God loved us even when we are no longer lovable.  God loved us even when we do not love in return.  God does not make contracts.  God makes a covenant.  It is a commitment and it is enduring.

That is why marriage has always been used as the image of God’s love for all of us, of God’s will to love us, of God’s decision to love us.  Marriage is the only grace that was not erased by the sin of Adam or washed away by the great flood.  Why?  Because before sin entered the world there was already enduring love, the enduring love of God.  And no other human relationship can show in the concrete this enduring love except in marriage.

So what do we celebrate today in this cramp room full of whizzing machines and tubes, and monitors and nurses?  enduring fruits, enduring endeavours, enduring commitments, enduring love no matter what.

Thank you Eda and thank you Pacifer.