Catholic Vancouver February 21, 2023
‘What makes us happy is our vocation,’ married couples told at anniversary Mass
By B.C. Catholic Staff
We can follow a variety of practices to try to achieve holiness, Father Gary Franken told couples celebrating milestone marriage anniversaries. But essentially holiness comes down to one thing: vocation.
“There are many things we can do to become holy,” from praying the Rosary to attending Mass to reading Scripture, Father Franken told nearly 200 couples celebrating marriage anniversaries at the annual Marriage Anniversary Mass.
“But what ultimately makes us holy is our vocation,” he said.
“You are made holy by the love you share as husband and wife,” Father Franken said in his homily at St. Clare of Assisi Church in Coquitlam. Marriage “is not just a good idea because you fell in love. (Marriage is) God’s idea for how you become a saint – being a husband and being a wife and holding each other’s hand through life.”
About 800 spouses and family and friends attended the first live Anniversary Mass since pandemic restrictions forced the annual event online, while hundreds of people watched on livestream.
Addressing couples celebrating anniversaries from five to 69 years, Father Franken said, “I remember being taught – and you are the ones that can bring this out all the more clearly for me – that vocation to marriage is not simply the vocation to happiness. Every vocation is meant to make that person happy. That’s the design of God and vocation. The unique happiness of the married vocation is unity.”
At the same time, he said, “We recognize that we don’t get here without helping each other carry the cross.”
He urged couples facing difficulties to consider Simon of Cyrene struggling to help Jesus carry his cross. “If there’s any moments that you have in mind, or any moments that may soon be coming, where you realize ‘this is going to be a little much,’ continue holding each other’s hand. You’re carrying the cross together. And in that love you are an awesome witness to Christ and the way he loves us and … being present in the world today.”
He closed by blessing them in “your holiness of vocation, in your holding hands and through the joys and the crosses of life.”
He told the couples, “You remind me and everyone that yes our destiny is to be united in God. May you be strong in the unity of your love of your sacrament. It’s a sign to the rest of us that God is alive with you. Indeed, with all of us.”