Spring is in the air! And so it also seems that love is in the air, too. Every other week, it seems someone I know or close to is getting engaged, or starting a new relationship, and it is such a joyous sight to see how many of them wish to pursue it with the Lord at the center! Witnessing this is a gift I hope to never take for granted, especially considering how rare this approach to love is found in our current culture.
Working a lot with women around my age who do not have a Christian background, I have seen how people assume that a vocation into marriage is something completely unrealistic, and often I am given sources and statistics about the prevalence of divorce, how toxic the other sex is, and how you need to be a free person and find “love” in all kinds of shapes and forms. When I got engaged last September at the age of 18, many of them were shocked and some even upset that I would give my life away so early without having “experienced the world” yet. Really, how would I know what true
love really was if I hadn’t dated a lot of guys who did not have my best interest at heart? I was disheartened with my co-workers’ reactions to the news of my engagement and was sad for them because the secular world so often builds up a false idea of love; either it is momentary bliss and pleasure, or completely non-existent. Of course I have been praying for those who see love this way, but it made me reflect on the gifts that God gives those who embrace His Love and Truth and how we may be called to share that with others. It reminded me of section five of Lumen Gentium (I highly recommend you take a gander at that document), which discusses the mission of the laity in the Church and the world.
Our very baptism calls on us to live in this way (look at Lumen Gentium 33 and 38) and to use our vocation to further the mission of the Church, bringing her members to unity with Christ for all eternity. Marriage plays a very special role in this mission, but it is a difficult and trying task at times which requires constant building up of virtues together and asking our Lord for strength and guidance. This calling goes out not just to those who are dating, engaged, or married, but to anyone who is one day going to be called by God to serve His Church: Prepare your hearts to go out into the
world and be a Light to the Nations.
To bring this back, I encourage you, especially those who are close to a vocation of marriage, to be lights to the world. Let the love you have for one another demonstrate to others what has made this love possible; not luck, not fate, not a 30-day free trial on Tinder, but imitating Christ and doing the will of the Father, who makes all things good. The world’s understanding of love and marriage needs Christ’s light—go shine it.
Ora et Labora,
Emily
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