Homily for 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time 2010

There was no wedding today in spite of the decorations you see. The Bishops have urged us to reclaim St Valentine from a purely secular Valentine's day. The decorations are there to remind you of your wedding day and the hopes you had and the promises you made. They will also be the backdrop of the Wedding Dress parade tomorrow afternoon.

The readings today give us both blessings and curses. The prophet Jeremiah must have been having a pretty bad day when he says "a curse on the man who puts his trust in man." We can understand his point that ultimately the only one we can trust totally is God. Yet, each day we have to put our trust in another person, such as the bus driver and certainly a partner in marriage.

Whatever trust we do put in another must find its foundation in the One alone who is completely faithful to us. Then what we do will be life giving and bear fruit.

Unlike Matthew's Beatitudes, Luke in his Gospel gives us both blessings and woes. We need to let the blessings and woes speak to us difficult as they may seem. They are a fitting foreshadowing of our Lenten reflection.

The blessings are not about God just giving a pat on the back to the poor or the hungry or those who are weeping to say it'll be alright. They are a promise that when we find ourselves in those situations God is there too with us. God will walk as companions on that journey of suffering which many are called to walk every day.

The woes remind us of the other side of the coin. When our lives are indeed full of good things we have a responsibility and a duty to share those gifts with others. Married life is full of this mixture of blessing and woes.

The joys of family, of being loved, bring great blessings to couples. Likewise, marriage can also be the source of deep pain. People hurt each other, disappoint one another, we let each other down. Selfishness, misunderstanding, defensive reactions are all part of our experience. Then there are all the external pressures that take their toll of people. There is the ever changing attitude of society to marriage and its value. The very definition of marriage is challenged by a world which puts little value in a life times commitment. And every new law, whether it be about same sex marriages or surrogacy, altruistic or otherwise, raise doubts in people's minds about the meaning and purpose of Christian marriage.

We are here because we stand for the values of the Kingdom of God. They are the rock on which we base our lives when we know we cannot put our trust in human beings alone.

So on this feast of St Valentine I offer this blessing to those who are engaged to be married and to those who are married:

"My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us turn to the Lord and pray that He will continue to bless your marriages with His grace. Father, look with tenderness upon your daughters gathered here; give them love, grace and peace. May they always follow the example of the holy women whose praises are sung in the scriptures. Bless your sons gathered in your name; may they always have the strength and compassion which comes from the Gospel. Together, may each couple continue to both praise you in their gladness and turn to you in their troubles so that you may fill them with the joy of salvation. Keep them faithful in their marriages, and let them be living examples of Christian love. We ask this through Christ our Lord."

Fr Graham