Of Weddings

We were in Seattle for the weekend, attending my niece’s wedding. Since there were many out of town friends and relatives, the events surrounding the wedding itself stretched from Friday night through Sunday night.

It was a beautiful wedding and a wonderful time all around. I wish the bride and groom every happiness in the world.

All over the world and throughout history, families and friends have always come together for life-changing events like this.

A single sacramental event tends to become days of revels when we can afford the time and expense – and often even when we can’t.

These events are hinges, spanning the two different parts of our life: everything that came before is now qualitatively different from everything that comes after. It is right that we take some time to plan them, and some time to properly celebrate them.

It is not insignificant that Christ’s first public miracle was at a wedding (John 2).

On Sunday, we attended Mass at Blessed Sacrament Church in Seattle’s U-District. I would have liked to go to hear their schola, but time restraints required that we attend the 9:00 AM Mass with their Contemporary Choir instead of one of the later Masses.

Now I don’t think it’s a secret that I dislike most modern songs inserted into the Mass. Many of them tend to be of the “Look at us! Isn’t it great how we are coming together to worship!” school of hymn writing. I tend to find them a distraction at best from the mystery and majesty of the Mass.

That said, the choir was fantastic. The Dominicans who run Blessed Sacrament have clearly rejected the worst tendencies of modern Catholic hymnody; somehow even the guitars sounded appropriate. The weird part is that I recognized some of the songs from my former parish. There, I thought them better suited for Broadway. Here, somehow, they were just fine.

The church itself is beautiful, with numerous side altars and full of exquisite statues and stained glass of varying styles from varying periods. The interior, like the interior of the great medieval churches, gives the impression of ever being an unfinished work in progress.

I heartily recommend stopping by if you’re in Seattle.

This Sunday was the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ (a.k.a. Corpus Christi), which unsurprisingly is the titular feast of Blessed Sacrament Church.

This, too, is a wedding or, more properly, a wedding feast.

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment.” (The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones.)

Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These words are true; they come from God.” (Rev. 19:7-9)

Elsewhere in scripture, we discover the identity of the Bridegroom and the Bride: Christ and His Holy Church (cf. Eph. 5:24-32).

The sacrament of their union is not that of Marriage, but rather that of the Eucharist, for the Eucharist is the marriage feast of the Lamb.

If only we would always celebrate this wedding with the same sense of importance we use for others!