A reason to be living

 

What a wonderful thought to think we can be both the salt and the light in the lives of another married couple. We, as husbands and wives, as parents and grandparents, are the salt that can help season the lives and marriages of others.

 We can be the role model, the inspiration for young couples just beginning their marriage preparation.  And we can be the light shining brightly, for those struggling in their relationships.

 Sometimes, unknowingly, others are following our example. They have placed you on that mountain and they hunger to have their troubled marriage be like yours. One or both begin to follow in your foot steps as their role model for a God centered marriage.

 There is an old song sung by many singers and groups, but for those around my age can relate to the one sung by “The Four Aces” called “Love is a many splendored thing”. The words to this song are beautiful.

 Love is a many splendored thing

It's the April rose

“Love is nature’s way of giving
A reason to be living
A golden crown that makes a man a king”

 Yes, marriage is love.  It’s all about love, and that love comes from the desire to please your spouse. It’s the sacrifice and the wish to make that blessed union that is now one, flourish in all eternity. And God is the glue in that union.

 And that love can be compared to God’s eagle’s wings, as it extends those loving wings over the whole family, the children, the grandchildren, and to our neighbor. Yes. Love is nature’s way of giving. That love we express for our family will become rooted in the love of God and will bear fruit for the salvation of our neighbors. God’s love and God’s values.

 Those same values we believe in and practice as parents are eventually taught and with the grace of God, practiced by the entire family. Unfortunately, the values of some individuals and parents, may not be God centered, and for them, their reason to be living is self-centered.

Family life is where we build the foundation for the meaning of love. From there it grows into a promise of lifelong, faithful and fruitful love between husband and wife.  And this is a gift from God, a gift we must cherish and nurture and always share

 I believe all of us have at least one couple that we looked up to, a couple who just seemed to be blessed with the gift of love, a gift shared in their marriage.  A couple whose values imitate the values of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. For me that couple was my grandparents on my mother’s side.

 They were rooted in the Church and in their country and two of the holiest people I ever knew.

They didn’t have much, being really hurt during the depression and never fully recovered, but lived life on sacrifice and love.  And their hearts were so big.  They were constantly giving of themselves and sharing the things that they had, which wasn’t much.  They rarely ever missed daily mass.

 As a child growing up, we would visit them frequently and rewarded with some homemade apple pie my grandmother always seemed to have.  And we always knew they would have for us something to take home. Maybe, it was dime at other times it was just a piece of hard tack candy. 

But whatever they gave you knew it was from the bottom of their heart and with love. They were sharing their only possessions.

 Alzheimer's began to set in with my grandmother. And my grandfather was feeling her pain.

My wife and I went to visit her in the nursing home and although she didn’t remember us she had the biggest smile on her face when we entered the room. Although we were now total strangers to her, that spirit of giving remained in her heart.

 In the nursing home, she no longer had the apple pie to make us feel at home, but she had to give something of herself. Looking through her only bedside drawer she took out a package wrapped in a napkin.  And with that big grand mom smile handed it to me to open.  It was the only thing in her drawer and it was hers to give away. It was giving with love; a cookie and her only one.

 Their difficulties were no different than yours or mine, but God was their resource for strength. They were the domestic Church with God in the center. They shared, they gave whatever they had, they sacrificed for the love of each other and each member of their family and their love cascaded to future generations and his still flowing. They were love. They were to me the light.  With that light their unselfish love in their marriage could not be hidden.  They were God’s gift for marriage to me and too many.

 For they believed that:

 Love is nature’s way of giving

A reason to be living

A golden crown that makes man a king”

Yes, true love's
A many splendored thing.

 And that is God’s family