Homily: 4-14-2023, Wedding Brady Hoskins & Lauren Eddy

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 Dear Brady and Lauren,

I am honored to preside at your beautiful wedding on this memorable day. I am well pleased with the way you have organized it, keeping it simple and focused on the spiritual aspect, more than the usual worldly fanfare.

And I am more than delighted that you have put the Holy Mass and your exchange of vows as most important. If this continues to be your priority throughout your marriage, I must say, you have got it right. On my part, I will keep this homily simple and focused as well.

In today's gospel, we heard, "a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

Both of you are different persons, with different gifts, talents, family background and so on, but today you will become ONE through a powerful force - love. Not simply romantic love, but agape love, God's love. God has brought you two together, He will grace you forward as one.

Saint Paul, in his beautiful poem on love, tells us clearly what love is and is not. Practice it and you will not go wrong. I would suggest that you read this poem often, maybe even putting the words up on the wall to remind you that your love for each other should be patient and kind, believing, hoping and enduring all things, true love never fails.

As a Catholic priest, I do not have a wife, but I learned much about marital life through observing my parents. My parents were true opposites. My father was very generous in giving to others, even when we had very little, while my mother was a frugal woman. She tried hard to prepare for her seven children, while my father surrendered everything to the Lord. So, they had many intense disagreements, many times I thought they would separate. But the fun fact is that within just a few minutes after fighting, they would start talking to each other again like nothing happened. I was always amazed and amused. 

They had disagreements, but they harbored nothing against each other in their hearts. They let nothing block them from moving forward together, not even their differences.

In conclusion, I would like to share with you this marital wisdom known as ‘The Marriage Box’:

“Most people get married, believing a myth that marriage is a beautiful box, full of all the things they have longed for: companionship, intimacy, friendship etc. The truth is that marriage at the start, is an EMPTY box. You must put something in, before you can take anything out. There is NO LOVE in marriage. Love is in people. And people put love in marriage. There is no romance in marriage. A couple must learn the art, and form the habit of giving, loving, serving, praising to keep the box full. If you take out MORE than you put in, the box will be empty. Most importantly, you must put GOD first in this box and it will always be full.”


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