Given at Westminster Cathedral for the Mass in thanksgiving for matrimony on 23 May 2026, during which over 450 couples renewed their commitment to live their marriage in holiness.

Dear brothers and sisters,

We rejoice today in the response of those who answer the call to the vocation of marriage. A great number (466 couples) are present here today and we pray with and for all those across our Diocese who live this vocation. Amongst those of you celebrating the vocation of marriage here today no less than 15,501 years of married life. If we sent back to 13,500 years before the birth of Christ, we would find ourselves at end of the last major ice age!

This is a day of congratulations for you all, but please forgive me if I mention four couples here with us today in particular: Mary and Thomas Conway, celebrating their 65th Anniversary this year; Shalina and Anthony Monteroi and Sophia and Dominic Roberts, celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversaries this very day; Kelly and Edward O’Reilly, celebrating their 17th Anniversary today.

Your love for one another reflects the love of which St John speaks in his first letter. In the love you have for one another, you are an example of the love we see in Christ. We see in you people in whose love God abides. This is the essence of the vocation of marriage: a life lived in a love that shows to all around the love that exists in God himself.

Back in the days when I used to instruct couples preparing for marriage, I would always ask them why they wanted to marry. It often took a while before, often in a rather embarrassed way, one would say: ‘We love one another’. It is difficult to describe why this happens. This is understandable, because there is something about love that defies description. It is mystery. This is not surprising, really, since love is of God himself, and God is mystery. It is this love of God that you show to the world; in your love for each other and in the children, who are God’s gift.

The marriage at Cana presents us with many moments of mystery. Why did Jesus tell his Mother that his hour had not yet come? Despite Jesus’ response, why did Mary trust that all would be well for those celebrating this marriage? Why 600 or so litres – 130 gallons of wine? And the best sort too? A number of commentators, including St. Augustine, have considered Jesus’ response a reference to the ‘hour’ of his passion and death. Mary’s trust is certain. She knows her Son will intervene. She does not know when or how, she simply trusts.

Today, Cana is really a suburb of Nazareth, on the northern side of the hill, with Nazareth on the south side. The journey by road today usually involves a traffic jam. In Jesus’ time, it would have been a short walk over the hill from one small town to a small village. Even with the whole town gathered to celebrate the wedding, along with guests from Nazareth, the gift of 130 gallons of the best wine, when the party had already drunk all the wine provided, is beyond description.

The very vocation of marriage is, indeed, one of gift beyond description. The gift of one to another, in a lifetime of fidelity and open to the gift of the children and wonderful beyond description. The lifetime of fidelity speaks to us of the faithfulness of Christ in his life of self-giving without limit. The children with whom God may bless you show to us all the fruitfulness of God’s love. There may be some challenges and struggles along that way. The journey through these and with the support of others, can, we pray, strengthen a relationship and even open the way to new possibilities.

The gift that each of you is to the other is a gift not only to family. It is a gift to friends, to communities, to the Church and to the world. This is because, very simply, your living out of the vocation to which you have been called is an experience of grace, and encounter with the love of God himself for all whom you meet.

May your love for one another be, for us all, an ever-present witness to the love that Jesus himself manifested at Cana: a love that is beyond measure, a love that is nothing less than the love of God himself.