04/17/2024
Buckle up. We’re rapidly approaching wedding season. Before diving into the majesty of the supernatural, forgive me for offering a cynical, but data-based look at the purely natural.
Compared to years prior, sacramental marriage has become something like the apex of Cedar Point’s Millenium Force. The vast majority get on board without knowing their sacramental seatbelts. Most have already aced “Conjugality 101” with repeated theses of "Oops, I Did It Again." Like metallic duct tape, their intimacy stickiness has been applied so many times that it’s lost adhesion. (Today, on average, young men and women have had between four and eight sexual partners). For many couples, the only thing scarier than vows proclaiming “total self-gift,” “open to life,” and “forever” is realizing they might actually have to mean it. But such is often the price for peace with parents and grandparents, impelling many to overcome commitment phobia and hurl towards "I do" only to be quickly overshadowed by “I won’t.” Thus natural marriage. Amusement. Leaving partners dizzy and disillusioned.
Cynical, I know. Painful, I know. But not nearly as painful as the experience of many who think, based upon nature alone, it will be different for them. As Cecil B. DeMille suggested, we can not so much break the moral law as be broken against it. Driving down the highway of relationships and marital life we can no longer presume ourselves absolved of these laws than can we presume to hit the berms going 70 m.p.h. and not be damaged. The portrait of marriage by mere nature is a roller-coaster ride resting on the fragile scaffolding of two very imperfect people. As such, alone, it is destined for failure.
Now for the magnificent news: God destined us for so much more. With profound love, He entered humanity to make possible supernature. In the person of Jesus Christ, God has appointed and anointed us with the capacity to participate literally in His Divine Life. He gives husband, wife, and family the supreme mission of making Him, who is Love, known. Given this revelation, each of us has the occasion to either reject or receive; to live a life of misery or in the Majestic.
This brings to mind the best musical ever, Les Miserables. Did you ever wonder what it is about Victor Hugo’s masterpiece that has captivated over 130 million people in 53 different countries—people of every age, gender, ideology, religion, and ethnicity? I’m going to say that the story of Les Mis is profound and real, with the capacity to reach beyond our surface and into our depths. The story is not simply something we spectate, but at some level, Someone in Whom we all participate.
Woven of incredible transformation, redemption, and sacrifice, let’s draw into the story of extraordinary divine-human encounter, Hugo’s magnificent account of Marius and Cossette's wedding night, a magnificent portrait of our appointing and anointing through marriage to participate in supernature:
READ FULL. VICTOR HUGO'S portrait is amazing. I'd appreciate your comments here and there (to get my GregorianRant.com Substack going!).
https://open.substack.com/pub/gregorianrant/p/misery-to-majesty-in-marriage?r=i2vxy&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
Incredible Insight from Victor Hugo (Les Miserables)
