Westminster Record
Summer 2019 | 20p
Intrinsic Good of Every Life
Our Eucharistic Journey
Spirit in the City
Page 3
Page 6
Page 18
Christian marriage is worth celebrating by Deacon Roger Carr-Jones, Marriage and Family Life Coordinator Did you know that in June over 600 couples, each called to be missionary disciples in their different ways, attended our Mass of Thanksgiving for Matrimony? I was fortunate to meet a number of couples and to share not only in their moment of joy but aspects of their stories: each a small reflection of the good news of marriage. As Christians, having heard the Good News of Jesus Christ, we now have to live it, every day! To do this we need to be effective, confident and joyful witnesses and learn to be ‘missionary disciples’ rather than passive recipients of the Good News. This is very achievable, especially in the sacrament of marriage, not always through great dramatic gestures, but through the ordinary everyday expressions of daily life, which reflect the vocation to marriage. Do you agree that the Good News of marriage is worth celebrating? Apparently, if a storyline implies something rotten has happened, or that the world is in a terrible mess, we are more likely to pay attention to it. This insight is supported by psychologists who tell us that ‘bad news sells better than good news’. Perhaps this is because we are conditioned by our development to be aware of dangers and so we notice what is a threat in preference to enjoying sources of joy. Researchers call this ‘negativity bias’, a psychologists' term for our collective hunger to hear and remember bad news. It is
‘Daily witness to the vocation of marriage’ © Mazur/catholicnews.org
not that bad news does not merit attention, it is just that if we lose sight of the good news in our world and in our lives, we are not in balance. We sometimes fall into this trap when we focus too much on the decline in marriage and the subsequent impact on family life, without giving sufficient attention and affirmation to the alternative living narrative. By this I mean highlighting those who live out the vocation of marriage, bear witness to its joys and challenges, thereby revealing God’s plan for love to each other and society.
© Weenson Oo/picture-u-net
My role is to focus on and sustain the good news of marriage. In celebrating the significant anniversary of over 600 couples, the cathedral was buzzing with the collective joy of so many successful marriages, and their impact on their families and our wider society. Reflect for a moment on where you have seen this vocation being lived out: your parents, your marriage, or that of friends. Our annual celebration of matrimony may not have made the national headlines. This is a pity as each of the couples, in their different
ways, shared their vocation to marriage through simple gestures: a story, a smile, or children, now adults, helping infirm parents to attend. It was a day of great joy and a reflection of a joy lived out in the everyday events of life. Joy is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, so it was fitting that this celebration was at the Vigil Mass for Pentecost. This marks the end of Eastertide and through the coming of the Holy Spirit the beginning of the time for witness and living out the gospel. A wedding is a beginning, not an end.
Cardinal Vincent spoke movingly in his homily of the different aspects of married life, of the grace that carried them through difficulties, and to reflect where the Lord has been in their shared journey. The Cardinal thanked the couples for their daily witness to the vocation of marriage, highlighting how this celebration, ‘Is also a witness, a powerful sign of resilient faith and love found in Christian marriage’.
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