Their wedding was only 2 weeks ago, and still during some quiet moments my mind will wander back to their ceremony. I can’t help but dwell on the vision of Cristina being walked into the church by her very proud papa. I felt very sentimental as I saw her passing through the church doors, around the baptismal pool where I was reminded of the promises we made when we brought her into God’s temple to be made a “new creature in Christ” (2 Corin 5) and thus initiated her journey into her Christian faith. Past that gently spilling pool, they walked joyfully towards the sanctuary. Similarly he walked her in as an infant many years before, that morning he presented her in front of our community once again, where she freely kissed him goodbye and took Justin’s arm in a holy place; the place where God makes himself present in a mysterious way every time we gather as a community to share his body in the breaking of bread. A place where his presence is when we hear God speak to us (his community) through our sacred family stories; stories and practices that have been ardently guarded and passed down to us for many generations. What a better place to profess nuptial love than in such a sacred place? Their wedding ceremony was a very simple Catholic liturgy, the kind of tradition that scriptures speak of when we read how the early Christians worshiped, “they devoted themselves to the apostle’s teachings and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayers” (Acts 2:42) Just about two thousand years ago, this is what followers of “The Way” did. Before there was even a “Bible”, early believers gathered to worship a Trinitarian God. They gathered as a community of love, transforming themselves into love through the breaking of bread, of saying together prayers and learning from what the apostles’ had passed on to them. Jesus instructed us to remember him through this ritual, in doing so, unity is created and service to one another is consecrated. What a better symbol for married love? Of course, in order to appreciate this custom, one has to be able to see with the eyes of “faith, hope, and love”. A marriage ceremony is centered on these virtues; in fact, the second reading Cris and Justin selected was St. Paul’s writing addressed to the church of Corinth on the excellence of love. (1 Corin. 13) “…But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.”
The fact that the couple carefully chose their own readings, selected their own symbols to exchange in the form of rings, (another beautiful tradition), prepared for that day through marriage prep classes, serves to remind them that this is their holy day, a day that has been set aside. Our Faith teaches us that in this sacrament, the two individuals are the ministers of this sacrament. In other words, they are the ones who directly administer this grace to themselves. No one else can do this, not even the priest. The priest is simply the official witness of the church. In Hebrew, the word for holy is kiddushin-literally means to “set aside”. In fact, it can also mean “wedding”. Just like the temple is set aside from other ordinary buildings, their wedding bands are set aside from other ordinary rings, and the bride has set herself aside for her groom, everything of that day reminded me of Gods’ call for us to be holy.
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