The Royal Wedding

Ahh, the royal wedding.  I remember back in 1982, getting up very early on a Saturday morning in Tallahassee with my good friend, Barbara Cairns, to watch the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana.  I became quite the fan of the two through their wedding and their lives afterwards, collecting anything that I could get my hands on and following their every step.  There's just something so terribly romantic about it all, don't you think?

Prince William and Kate's wedding was no less romantic, and I was thankful for the development of DVR's this time around.  I had the wedding playing while Glo was getting ready for school.  When she came downstairs, she asked me why anybody cared about the two of them, and she sat down (with John) to watch a few moments of the recording.  Five minutes later, John was offering to drive Glo to school so that they could both sit a little bit longer and see more.  They were completely enraptured by it all.

The night before, John and I had paused briefing on a show, discussing the possible residences of the couple.  Castles and palaces all over England and Scotland.  When I jokingly bemoaned the fact that I didn't marry a man who could offer me multiple castles (and John wished that he himself owned multiple castles, being the medieval fan that he is), he reminded me that I probably live in the biggest house in State College which basically makes me QUEEN of State College!  I love John!

All joking aside, I was actually pleased to see the institution of marriage so glorified.  Outside of the church, it seems that marriage is becoming more of an afterthought, if a thought at all.  My hairdresser, a 35-year-old woman who  just had her second child on Medicaid, from a second man, hopes that this man will stay with her for a while.  So heartbreaking.  While I was dismayed to hear that William and Kate had been living together for years, I was glad to see that they were committing to the conventional order of living.  Marriage and then children.

Growing up, I always saw weddings as the doorway to a new life.  It was the beginning of something different and wonderful.  Choosing to get married signified the commitment between two people.  The honeymoon was the first time a couple had lived together and done all those other fun things that married people do :-)  Nowadays, I cringe to think of all the media and people who contradict this way of thinking, especially around my kids.  Weddings, now, are more of a party, than anything.  There's nothing different between the two people involved after the wedding than there was before the wedding.

I realize that I'm standing rather high on my soap box, but I just can't help it.  It was very touching to me to see the world viewing marriage as something wonderful.  Although I'm not a member of The Church of England, there were many beautiful sentiments in the sermon from the bishop of that church.  For the world, I thought he summed up the beauty of marriage.  Here's a bit of what he said:

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

And in the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to each another.

A 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 this; 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 very hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. And people can dream of doing such a thing but the hope should be fulfilled it is necessary a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love.

Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. It is possible to transform as long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. 

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, we need 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.