Pope says a Christian lives marriage with joy and fidelity

September 06, 2013 - “The Church safeguards the Sacrament of Matrimony and calls it the ‘great sacrament’ because it is the very image of the union of Christ with His Church. Pope Francis make the remark in his homily at Mass, Friday morning, at the Casa Santa Martha residence in the Vatican. Reflecting on the day’s Gospel where Jesus tells the Scribes and Pharisees that the wedding guests cannot fast when the bridegroom is with them, the Pope said that a Christian must live his wedding with joy and fidelity.
“The Christian is basically joyful.” “For this reason,” the Pope explained, “at the end of the Gospel, when they bring the wine, when he speaks of wine, it makes me think of the wedding at Cana – and for this reason Jesus works His miracle – this is why Our Lady, when she realized that there was no more wine… but if there is no wine there is no party .... Such is the Christian life,” the Pope said. Christian life has this joyfulness of spirit, a joyfulness of heart.” The Pope however admitted “there are moments of crucifixion, moments of pain – but there is ever that profound peace of joy, because Christian life is lived as a celebration, like the nuptial union of Christ with the Church.” Pope Francis further said Jesus asks us to recognize Him as the only Bridegroom. In this regard he recalled a parable of Jesus about the king demanding guests to be in their wedding garments at his son’s marriage. He said we will always be tempted to cast aside the newness of the Gospel, the new wine and revert to old attitudes and sins. The old wineskins cannot hold the new wine. This is the novelty of the Gospel. Jesus is the bridegroom, the bridegroom who weds the Church, the groom who loves the Church, who gives his life for the Church.