By Deacon Roger Carr-Jones, Marriage and Family Life Coordinator, Diocese of Westminster
Marriage Week provides a moment for couples to reflect upon, pray about and celebrate the quiet witness of married love.
God is the author of marriage, which marked the culmination of creation as Adam and Eve stand before Him. It is a moment of transformation and hope for a new future, as the two become one flesh. At the Wedding Feast at Cana Jesus brings both transformation and hope to the newlyweds by turning the water into wine and blessing their union.
God gifts that same resource of transformation and hope to couples at their wedding. Hope in marriage is a natural not an artificial resource. Therefore, it is a renewable energy, and comes with two great advantages: it will never run out and can never pollute our relationship, only restore it, because its origin is clean and pure.
God, who knows just what quantity our relationship needs, is the source of ‘hope’ within marriage. He is in control and loves us more than we could ever imagine which is why we are gifted hope in abundance so that we can communicate better, love more openly and resolve differences through love. This same hope enables us to sustain our belief that our marriage can be continually improved and that there is always a future for our relationship. God’s plan for each marriage is that it should prosper and have hope for the future.
When we seek manufactured resources, we tend to discover that they are artificial, finite or poor substitutes. Instead, all we need to do is pray, put our hope in God, allow Jesus to transform our hearts and be thankful for our spouse each day.
Hope is one of the three theological virtues. Hope is a combination of the desire for something and the expectation of receiving it. That is the same hope we receive in marriage as we journey together in life.
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