Double Happiness!

I presided yesterday at the wedding of Patrick Morrissey and Juan Lu who is from China and has adopted the English name Karen. It was a lesson in rituals for me to hear Karen and Pat describe how weddings are celebrated in China. I was pleased to reference some of those customs in my homily. The cover of the program for the wedding included the Chinese character for "double happiness" which you can see here.

The character for happiness is one half of what you see here and when that character is doubled it becomes the character for marriage: the union that is meant to be a doubling of your happiness. I spoke of this beautiful symbol and of the Christian understanding that marriage is that relationship in which both spouses put the happiness of the other ahead of their own. In doing so nothing is lost and everything is to be gained. If each is dedicated to the other's happiness, a mutual selfless love develops, born of the sacrifice of self-interest.

On the day of a wedding in China, the groom and his friends go to the bride's home and must beg for entry at her family's door. The groom then sips a drink through a straw through the door and the drink is made of elements sweet, sour, bitter, salter and pungent: a reminder of all the realities of life which he and his wife will experience and need to cope with. St. Paul would not have known of this custom but his words to the Corinthians capture the same when he writes Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all thing, endures all things. (1 Cor 13:7)

Karen's parents and niece were able to come from China for the wedding and they kindly told me (through an interpreter) that my pronunciation of their names was good!

Please keep Karen and Pat in our prayer as they begin their married life, remembering that every wedding is a time to pray for all married people and especially for those experiencing those sour and bitter times, hoping that sweeter days will be their's again.