Generosity and Fidelity

Last evening our family celebrated the 50th wedding anniversary of cousins whose marriage has been blessed with happiness, fidelity and generous love spreading far beyond the immediate family.  It has been a golden marriage and shines as a model of generosity and fidelity so rare today. 
This morning's first reading is from Ezechiel 16: 1-15, 60,63 and describes God's generous and faithful love despite the infidelity of his bride, whom he new since childhood and on whom he showered unconditional love.  And I came across an exerpet on marriage from the noted theologian, Hans Urs von Balthasar.  The message was clear:  write about marriage.  In the words of Fr. von Balthasar, "What could be stronger than marriage, or what shapes any particular life-form more profoundly than does marriage?  And marriage is only true to itself if it is a kind of bracket that both transcends and contains all an individual's cravings to 'break out' of its bonds and assert himself.  Marriage is an indissoluble realty which confronts with an iron hand all existence's tendencies to disintegrate, and it compels the faltering person to grow, beyond himself, into real love by modeling his life on the form enjoined."
These three convergences can be summed up by simply saying that it is God's place of honor in a marriage, his living and loving generosity and fidelity that is the basis for a strong, lasting and happy marriage.  Without God's presence, growth in mutual love is stunted and often dissolves. Let us pray over these thoughts for ourselves, and for all married couples.
Bro. Rene
I will be away till Tuesday and will not be able to cut any slices from the loaf without a computer.  The above should be ample nourishment till I return.