1316AFC041913 – Happy 44th!
Read it online here, please.
Genesis 2:24 – For his reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
Matthew 19:4-6 – “Haven’t you read,” Jesus replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Look at the stars in those beautiful eyes! This was us forty-four years ago today. Over all those years we have always lived out the vow to make our home a Christ-centered home. We knew it was essential to be committed to something larger than the two of us, to Someone greater than the two of us, and that the Sacred Vows we took that day must last a lifetime. You remember how it goes:
“I, Charles, take you, Crucita, for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”
“I, Crucita, take you, Charles, for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”
The sacredness of Marriage is deeply and permanently rooted in the sacredness of creation, for God created Adam from the clay of the earth, but God created Eve from the bone and flesh of Adam thereby making her the ideal and only helpmate in all of creation – in all of creation! What a joy and privilege it is therefore to take up the vow, and the honor and responsibility that go with it, to be one flesh. God has given us this sacred vocation – to love and serve each other as one flesh – and sealed it with the blessing of his Love.
One need only look in one’s immediate family, or neighborhood, or even church to see that somehow this vow, this sacred vocation, has become disposable like so many things in our culture. It got caught up in what has been called “The Culture of Death.” For many, it is a convenience, not a sacrament. It is an option, not a vocation. It has become malleable and ephemeral rather that rock-solid and perpetual. It is a convenient, optional, and flexible choice for many who choose it for those reasons, but there are great numbers – perhaps even greater than those who choose marriage – who elect to “skip the formalities because it’s just a piece of paper,” or to redefine and reconstruct the whole concept of marriage so that all vestiges of its sacramental nature are obliterated. There will be judgment for that, and the judgment will fall on the World – even those who have preserved the sanctity of marriage – because the World has embraced sin and death and all humanity will be deluged with the chastisements that will come to help cleanse and purify the polluted rivers and streams of commerce, greed, and pride that are an affront to God’s Oceans of Grace.
Many people avoid marriage because they are lazy. Being married is hard work, and there is no denying that. There’s an old joke Crucita and I tell sometimes that goes like this: He says, “We’ve been happily married for 35 years!” She says, “Thirty-one dear. Thirty-one.” He says, “No, Sweetie, it’s 35, see? We were married in 1978 and this is 2013, so that’s thirty-five.” She says, “Well, Honey, not all those thirty-five years were happy.” Yes, we do have hard times even when we are committed spouses, and some people just can’t handle the truth: You have to work at being married or being married will work at you. We have our days – everyone does – but we also have 44 years behind us and God only knows how many more until “death do us part.” I have the privilege and honor of serving one of the most amazing persons God ever thought up. She has the blessings of having sufficient grace, wisdom, and strength to put up with that. It is indeed a marriage made in Heaven! And one we will never toss aside.
Just as we know our marriage is not disposable, we also know that life is not disposable. We believe in and support the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Sometimes we might not see eye-to-eye about how that applies in every situation or on what to say when someone tries to challenge that belief, but we do respect and honor Life. We keep our vows to God to be in communion with Him and with his People here on earth and in Heaven and expect to be resurrected there with him at the day of His choosing. Sometimes we could not agree about how to finish the chores, or discipline the kids, or get from A to B without a map or a stop at the gas station; but, we have always agreed, and always will agree, that God and only God is God. We believe in and support the teachings and sacraments of our faith. We love the Word of God as much as we love each other, too, so that’s a lot of Love goin’ on.
We’ve lived in a lot of wonderful places – all of them Paradise – and in every place we lived we have found other people to love and have been loved by others – and that can be a difficult task for folks because we’re both pretty headstrong. But, we are heart-strong, too. And our hearts belong first to Jesus. Whatever we do, wherever we go, in all things we are his first. We have left behind our former lives to cleave to one another and not leave one another. It’s wonderful of course to have connections to friends and family from far-away and long-ago; all of us need that connectedness to our past because it is the topsoil of our future. But for us, the bedrock of our future is Christ the Lord.
So today for our forty-fourth anniversary, I repeat, “I, Charles, take you, Crucita, for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” (And whatever else our God throws in to make it even more amazing!)
I would be remiss to focus only on this joyful celebration when there is so much tragedy in our nation and in our world. The shocking events with the bombing and the poisons in the mail, the grievous wars and persecutions all across the globe, and the corruption we see in all manner of institutions of government – all these are signifiers of the evil that underlies that culture of death. For those who commit such heinous and dehumanizing acts of terror, murder, and indifference to the sacredness of life, let us all the more reaffirm our resolve to make faith, hope, and love prevail and above all to love one another as He has loved us. Beloved, the whole purpose of the Moon Beam Network is to pray for one another and to feast on the Word. St. Ambrose of Milan said, “He who reads much and understands much receives his fill. He who is full refreshes others. So Scripture says: “If the clouds are full, they will pour rain upon the earth.” And if hearts are full of Love, the rain they make is refreshing indeed!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.
1316AFC041913 – Happy 44th!
Read it online here, please.
Genesis 2:24 – For his reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
Matthew 19:4-6 – “Haven’t you read,” Jesus replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Look at the stars in those beautiful eyes! This was us forty-four years ago today. Over all those years we have always lived out the vow to make our home a Christ-centered home. We knew it was essential to be committed to something larger than the two of us, to Someone greater than the two of us, and that the Sacred Vows we took that day must last a lifetime. You remember how it goes:
“I, Charles, take you, Crucita, for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”
“I, Crucita, take you, Charles, for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.”
The sacredness of Marriage is deeply and permanently rooted in the sacredness of creation, for God created Adam from the clay of the earth, but God created Eve from the bone and flesh of Adam thereby making her the ideal and only helpmate in all of creation – in all of creation! What a joy and privilege it is therefore to take up the vow, and the honor and responsibility that go with it, to be one flesh. God has given us this sacred vocation – to love and serve each other as one flesh – and sealed it with the blessing of his Love.
One need only look in one’s immediate family, or neighborhood, or even church to see that somehow this vow, this sacred vocation, has become disposable like so many things in our culture. It got caught up in what has been called “The Culture of Death.” For many, it is a convenience, not a sacrament. It is an option, not a vocation. It has become malleable and ephemeral rather that rock-solid and perpetual. It is a convenient, optional, and flexible choice for many who choose it for those reasons, but there are great numbers – perhaps even greater than those who choose marriage – who elect to “skip the formalities because it’s just a piece of paper,” or to redefine and reconstruct the whole concept of marriage so that all vestiges of its sacramental nature are obliterated. There will be judgment for that, and the judgment will fall on the World – even those who have preserved the sanctity of marriage – because the World has embraced sin and death and all humanity will be deluged with the chastisements that will come to help cleanse and purify the polluted rivers and streams of commerce, greed, and pride that are an affront to God’s Oceans of Grace.
Many people avoid marriage because they are lazy. Being married is hard work, and there is no denying that. There’s an old joke Crucita and I tell sometimes that goes like this: He says, “We’ve been happily married for 35 years!” She says, “Thirty-one dear. Thirty-one.” He says, “No, Sweetie, it’s 35, see? We were married in 1978 and this is 2013, so that’s thirty-five.” She says, “Well, Honey, not all those thirty-five years were happy.” Yes, we do have hard times even when we are committed spouses, and some people just can’t handle the truth: You have to work at being married or being married will work at you. We have our days – everyone does – but we also have 44 years behind us and God only knows how many more until “death do us part.” I have the privilege and honor of serving one of the most amazing persons God ever thought up. She has the blessings of having sufficient grace, wisdom, and strength to put up with that. It is indeed a marriage made in Heaven! And one we will never toss aside.
Just as we know our marriage is not disposable, we also know that life is not disposable. We believe in and support the sanctity of life from conception to natural death. Sometimes we might not see eye-to-eye about how that applies in every situation or on what to say when someone tries to challenge that belief, but we do respect and honor Life. We keep our vows to God to be in communion with Him and with his People here on earth and in Heaven and expect to be resurrected there with him at the day of His choosing. Sometimes we could not agree about how to finish the chores, or discipline the kids, or get from A to B without a map or a stop at the gas station; but, we have always agreed, and always will agree, that God and only God is God. We believe in and support the teachings and sacraments of our faith. We love the Word of God as much as we love each other, too, so that’s a lot of Love goin’ on.
We’ve lived in a lot of wonderful places – all of them Paradise – and in every place we lived we have found other people to love and have been loved by others – and that can be a difficult task for folks because we’re both pretty headstrong. But, we are heart-strong, too. And our hearts belong first to Jesus. Whatever we do, wherever we go, in all things we are his first. We have left behind our former lives to cleave to one another and not leave one another. It’s wonderful of course to have connections to friends and family from far-away and long-ago; all of us need that connectedness to our past because it is the topsoil of our future. But for us, the bedrock of our future is Christ the Lord.
So today for our forty-fourth anniversary, I repeat, “I, Charles, take you, Crucita, for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.” (And whatever else our God throws in to make it even more amazing!)
I would be remiss to focus only on this joyful celebration when there is so much tragedy in our nation and in our world. The shocking events with the bombing and the poisons in the mail, the grievous wars and persecutions all across the globe, and the corruption we see in all manner of institutions of government – all these are signifiers of the evil that underlies that culture of death. For those who commit such heinous and dehumanizing acts of terror, murder, and indifference to the sacredness of life, let us all the more reaffirm our resolve to make faith, hope, and love prevail and above all to love one another as He has loved us. Beloved, the whole purpose of the Moon Beam Network is to pray for one another and to feast on the Word. St. Ambrose of Milan said, “He who reads much and understands much receives his fill. He who is full refreshes others. So Scripture says: “If the clouds are full, they will pour rain upon the earth.” And if hearts are full of Love, the rain they make is refreshing indeed!
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever — at your service, Beloved.
