Day 227: Summary of the Sacrament of Matrimony (1659-1666)

• It’s Day 227!!

• MCNUGGET DAY!!

• There are no secret sacraments

• There are seven that we have talked about

• Unless you want to call the Church the universal sacrament of salvation

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and glory. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, we ask that you please accept us. Receive us in the name of your Son, Jesus. By the Power of your Holy Spirit, Lord God, help us to listen to your voice, especially in our brokenness. In this moment, Lord God, in our struggle, and especially if we are pressing play on a moment right now, Father, where we are just like, I’m so far from you. I’m so far from you right now. I’m so far from living the life that you have called me to live. I’m so far from being faithful. But God, meet us in this moment. Be with us in this moment. Meet us in our brokenness and help us to be unafraid to approach you. We have great fear of the Lord, yes, but let us not be afraid. And so we come before you, invoking the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, and claiming the promise of your Holy Spirit that helps us and enables us, gives us the power and the ability to pray. Be with us this day and every day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• We didn’t really talk too much yesterday about the reality of the Domestic Church

• We will hear more about the IV(4) Commandment about the duties of parents to children, the duties of children to parents, the responsibilities, the rights that parents have over their children, and the rights that children have with their parents

• Paragraph 1666 says, “The Christian home is the place where children receive the first proclamation of the faith. For this reason the family home is rightly called ‘the domestic church,’ a community of grace and prayer, a school of human virtue and of Christian charity.”

• We experience this under the regime of sin

• We experience this world as those who suffer from the Fall

• Our families suffer from the Fall

• Our marriages suffer from the Fall

• We suffer from the Fall

• AND YET…

• It is meant to be this place

• Paragraph 1657 says, “It is here that the father of the family, the mother, the children, and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way ‘by the reception of these sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity.’”

• Not just receiving the sacraments

• But PARTICIPATING in the sacraments

• We receive Confession

• We receive the Eucharist

• We receive Anointing of the Sick

• BUT…

• WE PARTICIPATE IN THEM!!

• It is not a passive reception

• When it comes to Mass, we are seated at times

• When the proclamation of the Word happens, we sit down

• We hear the readings from the Old Testament, the Psalms, the Gospels and we sit

• That sitting is not meant to be a posture of passivity

• Similarly, when it comes to any of the sacraments, it is not meant to be a posture of passivity

• BUT…

• A POSTURE OF RECEPTIVITY!!

• It is so different

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers…

• This is how all of us approach the sacraments

• God is the one who is initiating

• God is the one who is moving here

• We are not passive

• We are receptive

• Paragraph 1657 says, “It is here that the father of the family, the mother, the children, and all members of the family exercise the priesthood of the baptized in a privileged way ‘by the reception of these sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity.’”

• The next time you go to Confession or Mass, we are not there passively observing

• We are ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING

• We are RECEPTIVE TO WHAT IS HAPPENING

• The witness of a holy life, self-denial, and active charity remind us what the end of our lives are meant to be and what the goal of our life is meant to be

• UNION WITH CHRIST

• UNION WITH GOD HIMSELF

• BECOMING LIKE GOD

• BECOMING MORE AND MORE LIKE JESUS

• THAT IS WHY YOU ARE BAPTIZED!!

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike’s story about Dr. Michael Barber…

• Salvation is being saved from being un-Christlike

• It is not just salvation from Hell

• It is not just salvation from sin

• In an even more profound and deeper way, it is salvation from being un-Christlike

• It is salvation from a life lived devoid of Christ

• It is a life lived that we could even be like Christ

• We are called to the witness of the holy life, to be like JEsus

• SELF-DENIAL

• ACTIVE CHARITY

• We are called to care for the people around us, starting with the people closest to us

• Where is that?

• THE DOMESTIC CHURCH!!

• Since marriage is the fundamental building block of society, husbands caring for their wives and wives caring for their husbands

• Husbands pouring themselves out in love for their wives and wives receiving that love and pouring themselves back out for their husbands

• Forming a community

• Forming this stable and lasting building block from which comes life

• It is essential that the couple is open to life

• Even if they cannot have biological children of their own, they still have the kind of marriage that remains open to life, whatever that means for them

• They find a way to pour themselves out to the people around them

• Or they pursue adoption

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike talk about his best friend and his wife who were unable to conceive for a long time…

• The sense of the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony is the love between a husband and wife is meant to be lived in such a way that it can’t be limited just to the two of them

• They want this to live on in their children not just for posterity’s sake

• Not just for a legacy

• BUT FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE!!

• St. John Paul II called marriage in the family “THE SCHOOL OF LOVE”

• Not because you get there once you graduate

• BUT…

• THAT IS WHERE WE ARE SUPPOSED TO LEARN TO LOVE AGAIN!!

• This is a foreshadowing of the IV(4) Commandment

• The way the Church talks about this is profound and beautiful

• If you think the sacraments were beautiful and challenging, wait until we get to The Commandments

• Every single one of them is beautiful and challenging

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!