Friday, April 29, 2011

A Day on Which Absolutely Nothing Happened*



Wounded Bird does an otherwise excellent post on the Royal Wedding today, saving me the trouble (what is it about weddings? I swore I wouldn't even get up for it, and yet...). But then WB misses entirely the Wedding Sermon, which I thought was not only the best wedding sermon I'd ever heard, but one of the best sermons I had ever heard. I mean, when you can work Catherine(!) of Siena and Chaucer into a wedding sermon, well...that's someone I can learn from! So, in order to repair the error made by WB's sin of omission:
LONDON: Bishop of London's Sermon at the Royal Wedding of William and Kate

April 29, 2011

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."

So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day this is. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves.

Many are full of fear for the future of today's world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one - this is a joyful day. It is good that people in every continent are able to share in the celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.

In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them to the future.

William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.

In the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to one another.

Spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover that the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.

It is of course hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. People can dream of such a thing but the hope will not be fulfilled without a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love.

You have both made your decision today - "I will" - and by making this new relationship, you have aligned yourselves with what we believe is the way in which life is spiritually evolving, and which will lead to a creative future for the human race.

We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely the power which has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.

Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. This transformation is possible as long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom. Chaucer, the London poet, sums it up in a pithy phrase:

"Whan maistrie [mastery] comth, the God of Love anon, Beteth his wynges, and farewell, he is gon." As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, and mutual forgiveness, to thrive.

As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practise and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.

I pray that every one present and the many millions watching this ceremony and sharing in your joy today will do everything in their power to support and uphold you in your new life. I pray that God will bless you in the way of life you have chosen, a way which is expressed in the prayer that you have written together in preparation for this day:

God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage. In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy. Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer. We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

Amen.

---The Rt. Rev. Richard Chartres is the Bishop of London


*It's a very inside joke. Don't try to make sense of it; you can't.

4 comments:

  1. I was awake at 5:30 for a call to the facilities, but I chose to go back to bed and sleep. Bad me. I know. TMI.

    The Bishop of London gave a fine wedding sermon, indeed, and I'm told by clergy friends that wedding sermons are one of their more difficult tasks. To quote the wise words from Catherine of Siena to Catherine and her beloved was an exceedingly nice touch.

    As I was watching the video earlier in the day, the phone rang just as the sermon began. I was watching on The Royal Channel, and there seemed to be no way to pause the video, so I had to turn down the sound, and I missed a good part of the sermon then, and there was no way to go into reverse. And then I couldn't even finish watching the video at that time, because I was called away.

    Rmj, I remind you that I am not a newspaper with a staff of reporters. I am only one person, although I'm one person who admittedly should think more and write less.

    You've filled in the gap from my grievous sin of omission very nicely, so all's well that ends well. That's Shakespeare. :-)

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  2. Rmj, I remind you that I am not a newspaper with a staff of reporters. I am only one person, although I'm one person who admittedly should think more and write less.

    A mere jest at your (almost) expense, nothing more. An excuse for me to post the sermon, since you so ably reported on other things. And I really wanted to say something about that sermon (probably more than once!).

    Don't know what it is about weddings; maybe it's just seeing two people who seem so obviously happy....

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  3. The Bishop of London's delivery of his fine sermon was excellent, too. Everyone involved rose to the occasion to make the day splendid.

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  4. Grumble, Grumble-- I think he, the Bishop of London, missed a grand opportunity to use more ¨neautral¨ and ¨inclusive¨ language-- it´s not hard to do but maybe he was underscoring the Woman and Man = heterosexual bit to touch the hearts of the millions of Anglican LGBTI haters in Africa (and Jamaica)...the rest was heaven and the Catherine of Siena quote was a home run (and I also noted the nice touch with another Catherine so magnificantly present). It was a beautiful event for the world to celebrate together -- one day who knows who will be exchanging vows from the world of LGBTI human beings? Not me.

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