1) Love and marriage

2) Love sex and marraige

3) Primacy of love

4) The Sacredness of Marriage

Not just a cold, civic, legal contract but something very sacred - a sacrament instituted by Christ, sublimated by Him to give grace and strength to this unique commitment. Archbishop Fulton Sheen stressed many times that in marriage there are THREE partners, the man, the woman - and CHRIST himself. He is here, hovering over this ceremony, invisibly but really. And St Paul reminds us that Christ is not only Lord and Saviour but in the truest sense, our BROTHER...involved in every facet of our human existence, like us in everything, "sin alone excepted."

2. THE ROLE OF LOVE;

Marriage is, pre-eminently, the sacrament of love. Christ never defined love but gave innumerable examples. St Paul, however did give us a classic definition in his Epistle to the Corinthians, ch. 13..."Love is always patient and kind, never jealous, rude or selfish. It is always ready to EXCUSE, TO TRUST, TO HOPE AND TO ENDURE WHATEVER COMES." You must continually WORK at love and marriage. You get out of marriage whatever you put into it - nothing more, nothing less. Some of the best books and articles on marriage in recent years were written by the famous psychiatrist in England, Dr Jack Dominian, who rightly claims three benefits of true love;
1) TO HEAL ... the wounds and scars on the soul
2) TO SUSTAIN... each other in the trials of life
3) TO GROW.... in emotional and spiritual depth

3. ROLE OF PARENTHOOD:

St John Chrysostom, theologian of the early Church, stressed that good parents are the greatest artists because they don't just paint a limited creature on perishable canvas - BUT CHRIST ON AN IMMORTAL SOUL! And the importance of parental example is so well illustrated by Emerson when he puts these words into the mouth of a child to his parents: "What you ARE thunders so loudly in my ears that 1 can't hear what you're saying!" Keep thanking your parents for all they have done for you... their sacrifices, love, dedication over so many years. With much patience, they have tried to discipline and mould your character and develop your personality. NEVER underrate their love.

4. THE COMPLEXITIES OF MARRIAGE;

NO family is immune from the tragedies and trials of life - and today you take each other "for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." Christ never promised us an easy, utopian, idyllic life but warned us to "take up our cross DAILY" ... be it physical, financial, spiritual, parental - or what! But - and 1 stress this theme for your consolation and conclude on this note of optimism, hope and joy. Christ, our true Brother and Saviour, made us a stupendous, sublime promise which we must take seriously, highly relevant to each one of us, when He said: "I am with YOU..ALL days, even to the end of time." May He bless you abundantly, sustain you and be with you always in EVERY detail of your lives. Therein lies the sublimity and optimism of the marital sacrament.

Fr. Emmet P. Costello, S.J.