Transcript

We have gifts differing according to the grace that has been given to us.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen.

These words are taken from the Gospel and the Epistle today.

We have gifts which differ according to the graces that are given to us.

Not all of us are called to the same vocation.

Everybody has their own calling from God, and everyone has unique special gifts and graces which God has given to us.

When we think about this wedding Feast of Cana, the sacrament of marriage is often a topic of consideration, and so we'll think about that today.

And w- you know, when we often think about it, we think of how it is a gift from God, how it is a holy sacrament, something which is a great blessing, and the blessing that He gives to those two spouses, to the children, and to society as a whole.

But we should also realize that it is a vocation.

It is a calling that not everyone has.

It's a calling that is for individuals.

It's a calling that each of us has to discern for ourselves whether we have or don't have.

It's not a right.

It's not the default for anyone who doesn't have a religious vocation.

It itself is a vocation, and so it is necessary for us to discern this vocation, to take it very seriously, just like we would take anything in our life seriously, which is very important.

Because it is a, a natural inclination of, of, uh, of humans to desire marriage, we need to take a consideration of what it entails, the burdens that it entails upon us.

It's true that there's a large proportion of men who are called to this vocation, but not all.

I think that we can look at the story from today, the wedding Feast of Cana, and think about the good wine and the bad wine, and the order in which they were served.

And this shows us something which we really, we need to live our lives by.

If you think about the world, the world wants us, wants to offer us the good wine first, and then after that, the bitter wine.

Right?

We're given all kinds of promises by the world.

The world tells us to seek pleasure now, to seek to gratify our senses now, not to wait, not to put off our desires for later, but to seek our happiness now.

This is what the world tells us.

The world tells us to enjoy the good wine now.

And what happens when we do this?

The bitter wine will follow.

Our sins will be followed by pain, by suffering, by death.

That's the results o- ex- of taking the good wine now, of seizing pleasures as soon as possible and in the way that our, that our senses desire that we do this.

But on the other hand, look at the Gospel today and see how our Lord works.

First of all, the lesser wine.

You could say the more difficult things, the bitter things, those come first.

Laboring, working hard, making sacrifices.

Our Lord says, "If any man will follow me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me." This is that wine which was initially served today, huh?

The difficult burdens of our life.

These come first in Christ's plan for us.

These things come first.

And following them, then comes the good wine, the gift from God, the joys which He promises.

They will come, but first we have to endure the lesser, the more bitter wine.

And so I wanna think a little bit today about those burdens which the vocation of marriage places upon, upon the spouses.

There's many burdens, there's many difficulties, and so we're gonna look at just a few of them and to consider them, because this is a vocation, this is a calling, and it's something that needs to be taken seriously.

For those of us either who are discerning or maybe are already in this state of life, consider the obligations and the duties that are required of it.

Based upon the fact that it is a sacrament, it's something that needs to be taken very seriously.

This is the first consideration we can make.

A second consideration that we'll make is the love that is required of this sacrament.

"Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the Church." So think about this.

And then finally, we'll also look at children and the education of children, taking care of them as also a third obligation, a third duty of the married state.

So based upon the fact that marriage is a sacrament, there's obligations required for this reason.

It's a holy thing.

The sacrament's a holy thing, and so preparation needs to be done in order to, to receive it well.

Preparation intellectually, preparation spiritually.

If you think about a young child who's about to receive their first communion, they don't just, uh, one Sunday, come up to the communion rail and receive our Lord for the first time.

They go through a lot of preparation, catechism, at least a year of catechism, but really for them, it's their climax of their first seven years of their life.

It's all leading towards this.

At least for good parents, they are educating their children leading up to this Christocentric moment when Christ comes into their soul for the first time.

Everything that they're taught in catechism, in a certain way, is directed towards this moment.

It would be a very, very sad thing for someone to make their first holy communion not well prepared spiritually, with sin on their soul, with a serious sin on their soul.

This would be what?

This would be a sacrilege, another sin, the sin of sacrilege.

The same with confirmation.

Again, preparation is made for receiving the sacrament....

catechism.

But what if the person comes and is confirmed by the bishop but has sin on their soul, they're spiritually unprepared?

What will hap- result?

It's just another sin of sacrilege.

Preparing or receiving a sacrament in a state of sin is itself always a sacrilegious reception.

We have to prepare well spiritually for these sacraments.

And this uh, this, this certainly is gonna come about, obviously prior to this, through good confession.

But we can't expect to be able to live our lives up to these moments right before we receive a sacrament and then just be able to, to flip the switch and have contrition, confess our sins, and receive these sacraments worthily, efficaciously.

It's not like that.

We have to prepare ourselves.

We have to live every day as a preparation for a worthy reception of these sacraments.

It has to be a daily process.

And so this is one of those duties of people preparing to receive the sacrament of matrimony.

Preparation, proximate preparation at like right before receiving the sacrament is not enough.

You have to have preparation prior for really the entire...

And again, talking about the entire life of the person leading up to this moment, preparing their soul to receive the graces that Christ wants to pour out upon it.

So this spiritual preparation for marriage is very, very important.

Also, the intellectual, um, the intellectual preparation.

You know, if you think about a contract, if there was a civil contract that somebody was going to make, which was pretty large and had a lot at stake in it, they would certainly take care to make sure they knew everything that they were agreeing to.

They would seek the counsel of experienced people.

They would be very, very careful and prudent and slow in deciding whether or not to sign this agreement, this contract.

Is there one which could be more important to anyone than the contract of sacred matrimony?

Contract between the three, between the husband-to-be, a wife-to-be, and God Almighty.

And so certainly, preparation, due diligence has to be done before jumping into, frivolously jumping into, such a sacred contract as matrimony.

Experienced people should be, should be sought.

Their advice should be desired in making this.

This isn't something which should be ju- just jumped into quickly.

It's very, very important for a person to take their time to make a prudent decision about matrimony.

What about the love then, which matrimony requires of the couple?

He said, quoting Matthew.

No, this is Ephesians, I'm sorry.

"Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the Church." How did Christ love the Church?

What was his love for the Church like?

In St. Matthew, he says, "Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the Earth.

I'm with you all days." That is how Christ loved the Church, in a way in which He will be with the Church until the end of time.

When the rings are exchanged at a wedding, what do these rings symbolize?

This, this circle symbolizes that unending love of a husband for a wife, of a wife for a husband.

They too, as Christ will be with the Church to the end of time, they too promise that they will be with one another until this contract is, is over through the death of one of them.

They will be with one another in the same way as Christ is with the Church.

Our love, the love of spouses for one another has to mirror that of Christ for His Church, unending.

But also think about how indulgent our Lord's love for His Church is.

See, so many times in the Gospel, we see how our Lord is patient with those disciples of His who were so slow to pick up on what He was teaching them.

He was so patient with them.

His patience is something which is certainly required in marriage.

And also mercy, the mercy that He showed for sinners.

No one on this Earth is perfect.

All of us are sinners, and so it's gonna absolutely be required of two spouses that they be merciful towards one another.

Christ loved the Church so much so that He had great mercy on the sinners.

Husband and wife are supposed to imitate this love Christ had for the Church by having mercy and forgiveness on one another.

And then, and this is one which is so important, so important for us to remember, is holy love.

Christ loves the members of His Church in a way which makes Him desire to make them spotless and pure.

He gives us the sacraments to help us to attain this, to purify our souls, to make us full of grace, spotless and pure so that we can be presented to Him as cleanly and as beautifully as possible.

Husbands and wives are there to make one another holy.

They're there to make one another spotless and clean and pure.

Christ worked and worked and worked on this with His disciples, with His apostles, with sinners while He was on this Earth, and He does this still today through His sacraments, through His ministers, through all the faithful.

He works and He works on this unendingly, trying to cleanse us poor sinners, to make us clean and pure.And this is exactly the same thing that spouses must do for one another.

Day after day after day, working for the salvation of the other.

Day after day, working and working and working.

These are difficult things to do.

These are things that never end until the death of one of the spouses, right?

This is a vocation which is very, very difficult.

Very, very difficult.

It's for this reason that Christ makes matrimony a sacrament.

To provide those graces which are necessary so that those people who do marry, will be able to fulfill these obligations, these requirements, these duties that they take upon themselves.

We should remember that this is a vocation, it isn't the default for someone who doesn't have a religious vocation.

In itself, it's a calling.

Something that has to really be taken seriously.

The duties and the obligations of matrimony are a very serious responsibility, and they shouldn't be taken lightly.

No one should jump into the sacrament of marriage in a frivolous way, in a way in which they're seeking their own satisfaction first.

This would be a grave mistake for them and for their soul.

God created every one of us with a vocation, with, uh, with a mission on this earth.

And we have to try to find this mission.

This is the way that we are to get to heaven.

Now the road to heaven is already narrow, and if we miss our vocation, it's gonna be made even more narrow.

But what about if we do?

What if we do make a mistake?

What then?

I think it's so easy to, it's just so easy to know huh?

If we have made a mistake in choosing our vocation, we have to stay close to Christ.

All the more close, huh?

We've to be as close to him as possible.

Prayer, sacrificing by being faithful to that vocation which we have chosen, that, that, uh, calling that we have taken upon ourselves.

Even if it wasn't originally the thing that God had designed us for, we call upon him, and if we live as faithfully as we can to this vocation, to this calling, he's going to bless us.

He's going to give us the graces that we need.

It'll be more difficult than our true vocation would've been for us to get to heaven on, but God's going to take care of us.

He's going to give us the graces we need either way.

But if we're discerning our vocation, we should take these things seriously and realize that this isn't the easy way as compared to some other way of life, to try to satisfy ourselves now, you know.

This is like the wine.

If we try to take, to receive the good wine now, the bitter wine will follow.

We have to be willing to take up our cross daily and follow Christ, to be willing to sacrifice now.

Put off the gratification, put off the pleasures that we desire until the time that God will grant them to us, and realize that his affection for us is enough.

That's what we're searching for.

If we, through our vocation, get closer to Christ, closer to his affection and his love for us, that's a source of our happiness.

That's the ultimate source.

So whether it's through the sacrament of marriage or whether it's through another vocation, Christ will satisfy our desires.

Christ will have that good wine stored up for us in the end if we discern carefully, and if we prepare well for the calling which Christ has created us for.

God bless you in the name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.