A Discipleship Moment | October 6, 2024

My parents had an epic love story - one that reads like a Hollywood movie.  They met in Kindergarten at St. John School in Jackson.  Since they both had last names that were near the beginning of the alphabet, they wound up sitting next to each other in class every year in elementary school.  When they were in second grade, my dad, smitten from the start, proposed to my mom using a bracelet from a Cracker Jacks box.  She accepted, and after a 15 year engagement, the two were wed on August 10, 1979, at the same church where they met.  Cute, right?

Growing up, I had the distinct privilege of witnessing first-hand what true dedication to the Sacrament of Matrimony looked like.  I saw my parents face trials and celebrate triumphs.  I saw them disagree and reconcile.  I saw them navigate through sickness and health.  And in this, I saw two people truly living their vocation of married life and the formation of the Domestic Church.

Our first reading tells us, and Jesus reiterates in our Gospel today that, in marriage, “a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24). One flesh.  One unified force.  One love.

This does not mean that the spouses become one person (although I have seen couples that intentionally dress alike - even outside of sporting events or Halloween parties.  Not recommended).  Rather, husband and wife complement and complete each other in a partnership that is made possible through the sacramental graces bestowed on them at their wedding.  Marriage is unique in that the couple themselves, not the priest or deacon, serve as the ministers of grace, conferring on each other through their vows, the Sacrament of Matrimony.  It is their love, ordained by the Lord, that binds them together.

You may have heard the theory about why people lock their fingers together when they hold hands.  In this explanation, our fingers represent our strengths, and the spaces between them represent our weaknesses.  When we hold hands with someone that we love, their strengths fill our weaknesses and ours fill theirs.  Hands joined together with interwoven fingers are hard to pull apart by an outside force. If you ever played Red Rover on the playground growing up, you know this to be true.  But holding hands like this is a great representation of what happens in marriage.  Strengths fill weaknesses and the result is a fortified union meant to withstand life’s hardships.

My parents were married for 43 years before my dad lost his battle with pancreatic cancer in 2021.  They lived their vows until the very end, and my brother and I were blessed to be present for the moment that my dad went straight from the arms of his soulmate to the arms of the one who created his soul.  Til death do us part.  While it was absolutely heartbreaking to see them be separated for the first time in 58 years, the witness of their love and the commitment they had to their union is something that will never end.

I certainly hope they have Cracker Jacks in heaven because I know that there is a shiny new bracelet waiting for my mom when the day comes that she is called home.

Peace to you,

~ Hallie