Aug. 23, 2009: 21st Sunday Ordinary (B)

As a newly ordained priest I have done around 7 weddings the past year. Talking with the couples about to get married, the wedding day is one of the most anticipated yet stressful event for them. Usually the day before the wedding the bridal party meets at the church for the rehearsal. There is a lot of choreography, you see, for entrance of parents, grand parents, groomsmen and bridesmaids. For those of you who were married at Our Lady of Mercy, you may recall what you did during the Liturgy of the Word and the Liturgy of the Eucharist. While bridal party and guests are sitting down most of the time through the mass, the groom and the bride, sit? Oh no. They are kneeling 90% of the time. So the bride and the groom usually react, "We're kneeling the whole time?" It's a very nice penance for the couple before they get married, isn't it?

This brings to question, "Why?" Why do couples about to be married need to kneel in front of the altar? I'll explain this by way of telling you about a pilgrimage I took to Portugal. Before arriving in Fatima, Portugal, about an hour south is a small town of Santarem. At the entrance of a small church of St. Stephen in Santarem, I noticed a poster explaining a miracle that happened there. Sometime between the year 1225 or 1247, there was a woman living in Santarem who was very unhappy. She was convinced that her husband did not love her and was cheating on her. As a desperate last attempt, she went to a sorceress. The sorceress promised the wife that her husband would return to his loving ways, if the wife would bring her a Consecrated Host from a mass. The wife knew that this was sacrilege, but relented and went to mass and received the Eucharist on her tongue and quickly took it out of her mouth and placed it in a hankerchief. Immediately, the Host began to bleed profusely. Frightened, instead of going to the sorceress, she went home and placed the Host in the bottom of a trunk. That night as she and her husband slept, they were awakened by bright rays coming from the trunk which lit up the entire room. In one account, the couple saw holy angels adoring the Holy Host bleeding. The wife confessed to her husband what she had done. Both her and her husband repented and spent the rest of the night kneeling in adoration and reparation before the miraculous Host. The next morning, they informed the parish priest. As the Host continue to bleed for several days, they fashioned a reliquary made of beeswax to contain it. They placed it in the tabernacle, but after few years, they noticed that in place of beeswax, miraculously a glass formed around the host in place of the beeswax. Still today, that miraculous Host is in display in this little town of Santarem which I got to see in 2004.

Today, Our Lord gives us two images that are interwoven. First, through St. Paul, Our Lord gives us the command to be subordinate to each other. He says,
"Brothers and sisters: Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord...As the church is subordinate to Christ,
so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything." How many husbands when this was read few minutes ago elbowed their wives? But this passage doesn't stop there does it? It continues. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her..." This is a call to martyrdom, husbands. St. Paul is saying, 'Husbands, you should be willing to give up your lives for your wives." The second image that Our Lord gives us is of the large number of his disciples abandoning him because they could not accept his teaching about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. He presents this challenge to those who decided to stick with him. “If it does not please you to serve the LORD, decide today whom you will serve..."

Husbands, what do you think the number one complaint by wives about their husbands? "My husband never chooses me." Husbands, we know we are distracted by many temptations and desires, the very desires that pull us away from the love of our life--our wives. What are we to do? St. Paul exhorts us, "Husbands, love your wives." This is a great act of sacrifice and a great act of love, to deny oneself from temptations so that we will choose our wives. After this homily, a representative from our men's spirituality program, That Man Is You, will speak about how we can once again learn how to commit to love our wives.

Wives, what do you think the number one complaint by husbands about their wives? "My wife does not respect me." Wives, do your husbands not deserve respect from you because the way they treat you? Then, it is a great act of sacrifice and a great act of love, to give respect when one does not deserve one. Yet this act of sacrifice, promotes peace in the household which preserves the husband as the head of the household and preserves the wife as the heart and the love of the family. We need both the head and the heart for this body to work; one is not greater than the other; both are equal in dignity and importance.

So husbands and wives, why did you kneel before the altar to pronounce one of the most important vows of your lives? It is impossible by human strength alone to keep your wedding vows to each other. Listen to the nuptial blessing that the bride and the groom receives at the wedding mass: "Father, may her husband put his trust in her and recognize that she is his equal and the heir with him to the life of grace. Lord, may they both praise you when they are happy and turn to you in their sorrows. May they be glad that you help them in their work and know that you are with them in their need." And as the bride and the groom kneel before the altar, right before their eyes on the altar, Jesus sacrifices his own fleshly body and sheds blood to nourish both the bride and the groom to be able to make the same sacrifice for each other.

The Eucharistic miracle of Santarem is one of the only Eucharistic miracles that occured for a married couple, especially a couple whose marriage was in trouble. The image that we should remember from this miracle is how the wife and the husband kneeled before the Holy Eucharist both confessing and repenting of their sins. Good marriage happens not by accident but by knees bent in worship of Jesus in the Eucharist.