During his Wednesday audience, His Holiness Pope Francis continued his weekly catechesis on the family by concentrating on marriage in crisis. “The difficulty of staying together – both as a couple and as a family – leads to bonds being broken with ever increasing frequency and swiftness, and the children themselves are the first to suffer the consequences,” the Pope noted.
We heard the Pope’s message and thought, “Oh my yes. This sounds like us!” We have been married for 23 years. We have weathered several marriage crises during that time and have come very close to divorce. Praise God that our sacrament, our promise to God and to society, and the blessing of the life-giving marriage program Retrouvaille, has kept our marriage in tact.
In just a few days our niece will get married. Unfortunately, she will not be getting married in the Church. She asked us if we had a token to offer her as “something borrowed” since the item is supposed to come from a ‘successful relationship’. “I don’t have much luck with that on either side of my family,” she lamented as both of her parents are twice divorced. What a sad statement of society today! Her family of origin did not teach her, as Pope Francis points out, that “a marriage consecrated by God safeguards that bond between man and woman that God has blessed from the very creation of the world.”
Pope Francis continues, “Jesus teaches us that the masterpiece of society is the family; a man and a woman who love each other! This is the masterpiece!”
We smile from ear to ear believing that saving our marriage was really saving a masterpiece. What joy to think that Jesus and His Father are smiling down on us as a masterpiece! Our goal and our prayer this weekend at our niece’s wedding, and always, will be to demonstrate a crucifixion type love to the world. Our sacrifice to die to the notion of a selfish and single life has brought us great joy…and ultimately more children along the way. We pray that we can, as Pope Francis calls us to do, be the “Christian seed at the root of equality between spouses” and “bear new fruit”, to give “witness to the social dignity of marriage.” Lord Jesus, Mother Mary, help us.
