The Bray family has really impressed me during the years = I’ve been their pastor, and Kristie is no exception. She is bright, personable, a reliable worker, a loyal family member,= and a woman of sincere faith. When it = comes to finding a husband, she could have her pick from a large pool of qualified candidates. Instead, she’s got Rya= n. Now you may think Ryan is nothing more = than beer and baseball, but there really is much more to his life; it’s just tha= t I seem to have misplaced my notes. N= o, seriously, these them will stir your hope for the future of the American family, our society, and our church. They are an exceptional couple from two outstanding families, and it= ’s an honor to witness their marriage today. To be precise, that’s all a priest does at a Catholic wedding. He witnesses; he does not marry them; t= hey marry each other. In fact we all h= ave responsibilities today – the couple, me and you.

Ryan and Kristie must love each other as Christ loved the Church. Jesus loved not because of= what he got out of the deal, but for our sakes. He suffered for us; that is love. Kristie and Ryan know I cringe whenever I hear 1 Corinthians at a wedding. It’s a beautiful passage,= but it says some fluffy things about love: “Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.” All that is true, but I have two concerns. One is the temptation to= hear the way we want to be loved, more than the way we are willing to love. We all want patience, kindness, belief,= hope and endurance; we want a love that never fails, but we’re not always willin= g to give the love that never fails. My= other concern is that Paul did not address these words to the engaged couples of Corinth; he addressed them to the Christians in Corinth. The way he describes love is not how he expects married couples to treat each other; it’s how he expects all of us = to treat all of us. If you say, “I am willing to give my spouse the love that never fails,” good for you, but you still haven’t lived up to what Paul is asking. He wants us to have that kind of love for everybody – for all the pe= ople in your family, all your coworkers, all your neighbors, all the people you = see at church – even the priest. It’s = a tall order, and I fear many engaged couples don’t get it. They think God is calling them to love = each other. Well, that’s not enough. We also have to love people we don’t li= ke very much. To do this, a newly married = couple needs our help. That’s our responsibility today – we are witnesses to this love. We testify to what we see. We hold Ryan and Kristie to the commitm= ent they make. We will help them if we= model for them the kind of love they should have.

A wedding is a joyful celebration, but it should also cal= l us all to live a better life, to remember how Christ loved us, and what he exp= ects of us, to recommit ourselves to the people who depend on us, and to develop ways of loving not just the people we like, but those who are disenfranchis= ed, unemployed, lonely, addicted, and who dwell beneath no shelter of love. The world needs us, and the world gets = us one family at a time. Ryan and Kristie= , we stand at your side as you now form one more family to stand athwart any des= pair in our society, and show us what love is.