Spring and summer lend themselves to numerous events and activities. Among them are weddings. While they take place throughout the year, the onset of the nice weather heralds the season when many brides and grooms arrange for the wedding ceremonies and the exchange of vows.

I am very grateful to all the priests and our lay people of the Diocese of Rockford who give so much of their time to help prepare couples to understand the religious, societal and personal importance of marriage and the moral values such as Natural Family Planning that keep us in touch and in harmony with God’s plan.

At the same time, we all need to be grateful to the men and women who give themselves to each other in marriage. Their exchange of vows in the context of a lifelong commitment between a man and a woman serves as an essential contribution to society and a visible reminder of the meaning of fidelity and sacrifice for another.

Their openness to and acceptance of children is a work with God Himself. God bestows that new human life on the husband and wife, reflecting His own eternal love and life giving abundance for all creation.

St. Paul reminds us in his Letter to the Ephesians that marriage is a great mystery that signifies for the world Christ’s love for the Church.

Our understanding of the very nature of marriage and its relation to God’s plan for creation and for each of us is increasingly important.

As we know, there are well publicized and well organized efforts to redefine marriage in our day. Elements of society and the media are increasingly hostile to adherence to the nature of marriage based in faith and in a traditional reverence for the meaning of the complementarity of being male and female. In contrast, we are being told such ideas are not based in reason or fidelity to God, but are outdated ideas based in hatred and bigotry.

Our Christian and Catholic understanding of marriage has stood the test of time, and with good reason. Rather than a mindlessly slavish adherence to the creation accounts of Genesis and the words of Christ 2000 years ago, it is a loving acceptance of God’s plan that each day helps us to fulfill the destiny that He calls us to.

We understand marriage to have two purposes: the good of the spouses and openness to the gift of new human life flowing through that relationship. Neither element can exist alone for God’s plan and our human nature to be fulfilled.

Of course not every marriage is blessed with children, but it is the complementary participation of man and woman that is the context for God’s act of creation in human life.

This gets to the heart of why marriage is so unique and important and why its nature is unchangeable.

Our Catholic understanding of marriage is not one of bigotry. We should not be intimidated by those who wish to silence or coerce us with that language.

We defend the respect and love that is owed to every human being, including persons with same-sex attraction, since all are made in God’s image and likeness. At the same time, we embrace an understanding of marriage that is part of the good news of God’s love for all men and women.

Marriage unites God’s on-going involvement in the creation and fulfillment of the human race with a deep understanding of our human nature.

As we pray for many different intentions, let’s remember to pray for those brides and grooms receiving the sacrament of matrimony this year. And let us pray for the grace of our own fidelity to the nature of marriage and its meaning for the Church and for the world.