It is not an accident that what happened to me tonight came to pass. I received a tremendous grace from God. I will try to explain it here ...

Last week I brought a book to my adoration hour. I was thoroughly engrossed in it enough to stay awake through my 11pm hour. This week, I planned to bring the same book. When I went to thumb through the books on the shelf I remembered that I had brought the book to work in order to read a few chapters during lunch. That left me feeling somewhat discouraged, but alas I have many books at home I have not read. I grabbed a random one off the shelf ... the topic happened to be marriage.

The book was "Male and Female He Created Them" by Jorge Cardinal Medina Estevez. It starts off listing the many offenses against marriage: fornication, adultery, polygamy, sodomy etc. It was a thoroughly distasteful read. It was followed by a more pleasant exposition of the biblical support for the teaching of the Church on marriage. What I found was that I had forgotten there is so much in the Bible that refers to marriage, especially the Old Testament. It is so very clear the way God intended it -- that is, one man, one woman -- until death. My reading continued and as is often usual in my adoration hour, I fell asleep.

Midnight rolled around and I hopped in the car to head home. Immediately God revealed to me the gift of the wedding anniversary of my in-laws. Today is their 35th wedding anniversary. In their marriage I see an image of the faithfulness of God to the covenants He has made with us. For God, His covenant is forever. It is His people who have been unfaithful. His example, however, is one of faithfulness. For those who remain married are also committed to longevity. It is also a gift that my wife and I were able to celebrate it with them, including our children. In reality, the fruit of their marriage eventually resulted in the joy others saw in our children tonight.

The peace that my wife and I have received in our marriage is one that we received from the example of our parents, both having remained married. It is the basic gift of life my wife received from them, as I did from my parents to support the foundation for all that my children will know of life, love and even God. It is also the great gift of handing on the faith that my wife and I have been able to grow in the grace and love of our Lord forever learning new ways to serve each other and God. So while the world may see insanity in the longevity of marriage, what the Christian sees is a great triumph and even more importantly an image of fidelity that points directly to that even more perfect attribute of God towards each of us.