Seeing how Marriage unlocks all other sacraments

8/19/2021

Mt 22:1-14 Jesus again in reply spoke to the chief priests and the elders of the people in parables saying, “The Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. Then the king said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests.

If you had to choose, which of the seven sacraments would be your favorite? How many would pick confession? Not many, except priests who love to hear about people’s dirty laundry. No, actually, confession is one my favorites because I see people’s humility and God’s grace shine brightly in them. Everyone loves the sacrament of baptism except the poor baby who is nearly drowned.

Many are anxious to receive the anointing of the sick, but hate the illness that requires the extra grace. Confirmation probably would not make most people’s list of top seven sacraments, least of all the youth who receive it. It is the most underrated and misunderstood sacrament, and that I believe is very sad.

But do you know what Pope St. John Paul II’s favorite sacrament was? Hands down it had to be Holy Matrimony. He wrote a long book about marriage called “Man and Woman He Created Them.” In that book, he called marriage the “sacrament of sacraments” and the “primordial sacrament.” Why? Well, he believed that marriage held the key to unlocking the mysteries of all the other sacraments. In other words, each sacrament is a gift of Jesus, the Bridegroom, for the Church, his Bride. The whole Christian life, especially the seven sacraments, can be seen as a love affair between Jesus and his Bride, the Church.

This marriage motif is perfectly summed up by St. Paul in Ep 5:25-27, where he wrote: “Husbands love your wives even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her by the bath of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” If you read those three verses with a sacramental lens you can catch shades of baptism, confession, confirmation, anointing, Eucharist, and Holy Orders. In the sacrament of marriage, therefore, we find a deeper understanding all the sacraments, and that is why it was John Paul's favorite.

It should not surprise us, then, that Jesus also loves the sacrament of marriage. In today’s gospel from Mt 20, Jesus uses a parable about a wedding banquet to describe the Kingdom of heaven. In Jn 2, Jesus performs his first miracle at the wedding in Cana in Galilee. In Mt 25, Jesus tells the parable of the 5 wise virgins and 5 foolish virgins and which ones had their lamps lit and ready for the return of the Bridegroom.

And the Bible builds on this betrothal backdrop, this marriage motif, where the prophets routinely saw Israel’s infidelity to Yahweh as “adultery.” The Song of Songs speaks of the relationship of Yahweh and Israel as romantic. And the last book of the Bible, in Rv 22:17, almost concludes with the lines: “The Spirit and the Bride say, ‘Come [Lord Jesus]’.” In other words, the Bible begins with a married couple (Adam and Eve) and it ends with a married couple (Jesus and his Church). Why? Because I would suggest to you that the Bible’s favorite sacrament is also marriage.

My friends, let me invite you to think about your favorite sacrament and why you like it so much. How has that sacrament helped you to fall in love with Jesus more? On the other hand, which one is your least favorite sacrament – maybe confession or Confirmation – and why do you not care for them? There is a grace even in these least favorite sacraments that Jesus the Bridegroom is offering to us, his Bride, to make us “holy, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.”

And finally, pray for all married couples, who are living the primordial sacrament, the sacrament of sacraments, that they might be a living icon of the love of Jesus for his Church. Maybe in heaven, marriage will be everyone’s favorite sacrament, when the Bridegroom and the Bride become one.

Praised be Jesus Christ!