Homily for Wedding of Tony & Trang

I had the blessed opportunity to officiate wedding #11 this afternoon. Please keep this wonderful couple in your prayers. Below is my homily:

Good afternoon. We come together this afternoon to celebrate the love that binds Trang and Tony, a love that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ blesses in the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony. More importantly, however, we come together to celebrate a greater love: God's love for each and everyone of us. Tony, you love Trang and,Trang, you love Tony because God loves each of you first. When you replace “love” and “it” with “God” and “He” in Saint Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, the second reading that you have selected, you not only get a sense of how much God loves you but how each of you can model this love for one another in your vocation as husband and wife. Just listen: “[God] is patient, [God] is kind. [He] is not jealous, [He] is not pompous, [He] is not inflated, [He] is not rude, [He] does not seek [His] own interests, [He] is not quick-tempered, [He] does not brood over injury, [God] does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. [God] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [God] never fails.” God is love.

I want to commend you both for putting in the time and effort to start your married life on the right foot by being here in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. In just a moment here, in the presence of your family, God will join you together. Tony, you will be joined to Trang. . . Trang, you will be joined to Tony. . . and you “are no longer two but one flesh”, as we heard proclaimed in the Gospel. I encourage you to keep God in your hearts and invite Him to be a part of your marital relationship. I promise you that if you do this each and everyday of your life as husband and wife, your love for each other will increase and be filled with an abundance of joy and peace. For what God has joined together, no one must separate.

The first reading and the passage from the Gospel of Mark that you chose speak of the deep intimacy that the both of you will share as husband and wife, an intimacy that begins today when you center into the Sacrament of Matrimony. There is deep intimacy when two become one flesh. Even though you are here with families and friends to celebrate this joyous occasion, during the Rite, when you hold hands, look into each other’s eyes, and exchange your vows from the depth of your hearts, it will be just the two of you making those vows before God and with God. And after more celebration at the reception later today, it will just be the two of you on your wedding night. And like Tobias and Sarah on their wedding night, take a moment of quiet prayer to give God praise and thanks for the gift of each other, to be each other’s help and support. Entrust your past to God's mercy, your present to His love, and your future to His divine providence. Pray for God's love and mercy to be pour forth upon you as husband and wife, so that you have the strength and courage to be each other’s help and support in good times and in bad times, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, so that you may "live together to a happy old age" filled with love and cherished memories.

At this time, I invite you - Tony and Trang - to face one another and hold each other’s left hand while putting your right hand on each other’s heart. Now, I invite the parents of the bride and the groom, along with everyone here - families and friends, to raise your right hand in the direction of Tony and Trang and repeat after me this prayer of blessing for the both of them. Please repeat after me:

May the Lord bless you and keep you!

May the Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!

May the Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace! (Numbers 6:24-26)

Amen.

Tony and Trang, remember this prayer of blessing and pray it over each other as often as possible during your married life together and your love will bear much fruit in so many wonderful ways. Well now, are you two ready to become husband and wife? [Yes.] Good answer! 

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Bonus: We got to visit with Dr. Storm, who came back to do the music for the Wedding.