Homily by Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD. at the Wedding Mass of Angel Wolf and Greg Morrison
THE AKSM PRESS
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release | July 3, 2020
Homily by Villanova President, Rev. Peter M. Donohue, OSA, PhD. at the Wedding Mass of Angel Wolf and Greg Morrison
Saint Paul’s Cathedral, Pittsburgh, PA
2:27 PM EST
FR. PETER: For those of you who are not of the Catholic faith, we have a custom within the Catholic church. Things that are called movable feasts. So a movable feast is a feast day to celebrate a solemnity or celebrate a church holiday that has the tendency to move from day to day. The date may stay the same, but the day changes. So for example, a movable feast would be Christmas; because it’s not always on the exact same day, whereas Easter is always on Easter Sunday. But Christmas moves. It could be on one day, and then another, a Tuesday, could be on a Thursday, Saturday, so it’s considered a movable feast. There are several of them that are considered because they change around the calendar. I am looking at the wedding of Angel and Greg as a movable feast [laughter]; because this day has moved from day to day [laughter] and from place to place. We have come from Villanova to Italy back to Pennsylvania. It has been on one day and then another; and every day Greg asked me about doing this wedding, I said, “No. I’m not available.” So finally we found a day that I was available to come to. And - ah - I think all of you - constantly - when you got that save the date, originally you were thinking, “Well what day am I saving?” [Laughter]. So - um - congratulations, it’s finally here!
The gospel reading that you heard - it’s a rather interesting gospel reading for a wedding; because it’s not in the usual cannon of wedding readings. Usually wedding readings have to do with - you know - love one another, love me as I do you - you know, things like that. So they’re very typical, standard wedding readings. But Angel and Greg picked a very unusual reading. And a very LONG reading for that. […] But I thought it was - when I first received it from them - I thought it was a little unusual. But then I thought, it was rather appropriate. In some ways or another. And there’s a story of an old man that I would like to share with you. And I’m sure if you went to Villanova, you’ve heard me tell this story before. But - ah - I think it is a rather appropriate story in light of the gospel.
This old gentleman, he’s facing his death. And as he lies in bed, his mind begins to wonder. And he goes almost into this deep, delusional state and he has this dream that messengers from God come to him and ask him if he’d like to see or choose where he would spend the rest of his life. Where he would like to spend eternity. And he thinks, “Well this is unusual, I didn’t expect this.” But he says, “Yeah.” They say, “We’re going to show you Heaven and we’re going to show you Hell. And we’re going to leave it up to you to decide which one you would rather be in.”
“How unusual? Fine! Let’s go!” And they lift him out of his bed and bring him to stand in front of these magnificent doors. Unbelievable doors. The largest doors he’s ever seen. And above in this beautiful gold scroll reads, “HELL”. And they say, “Would you like to see what it looks like?” And he says, “YES!” And they swing open these doors and he walks into this magnificent banquet hall. Filled with people - socially-distancing of course [laughter] - but they’re sitting in this banquet room and the banquet table goes on - it’s the length of this church if not further - as far as he can see and people are sitting on either side of this massive table and it is filled with food and drink. It is the most splendid places in the world. And he says to the messenger, “Well this is not my idea of Hell.” And the messenger says, “Take a careful look.” And he notices that all these people sitting at the table are sitting there in total silence. None of them are enjoying this massive feast in font of them; because the only way they have to get the food is by using these six foot utensils. Six foot forks. And none of them can figure out how to get to these dishes of food using these six foot forks and get it into their mouths. So they just sit there. Utterly frustrated. He says, “I’d like to see Heaven.”
They walk outside. The doors shut. And suddenly the sign changes to “HEAVEN”. Exact same doors. They swing them open and he walks into the exact-same-banquet hall. Filled with people. Filled with food. Filled with beverage. A massive place but there was a difference in this room. There is so much life and laughter and celebration going on. People are really enjoying themselves being there. They too sit at these massive tables with these six-foot utensils. But they’ve learned something. They’ve learned how to use them. They’ve learned that they cannot feed themselves. They must feed each other. They must take this fork, dip it into the food and reach across the table to feed the person on the other side. That it is only in their learning how to feed each other will they ever experience Heaven.
Feeding each other. Serving each other. Recognizing what we have as talents to bring life to one another and how we use those talents, those gifts, those instruments to give life it’s substance to someone else. That’s where we come to celebrate in a wedding. Two people who have found each other and in finding each other have learned to nourish each other. Have learned to use their gifts, their abilities to nourish each other and allow the greatest gifts that God has given them to come to full fruition. Marriage is an opportunity for us to witness that Angel and Greg are in love with each other. We know that they are in love with each other. You can’t be with them very long without knowing that. Greg will tell you. Constantly. [Laughter]. And Angel [pause] just smiles and says, “He’ll stop soon.” [Laughter].
But we know the two - so we’re not here because we want to see their love - we know that they love each other. We want to hear that. We want to hear them pronounce that they meant it [pause] forever. That they will use their lives to nourish each other and that’s what we celebrate in marriage. All of you who celebrate marriage know how difficult the relationship is. I think it’s probably one of the hardest relationships or one of the most hardest things on earth; because it demands attention. It demands constant attention to someone else. It demands recognizing that this person who you are committed to with walks with you in every moment of your life. Whether they are at your side or not. They are always a part of every decision that you make. Of every question you ask. Of every place you go. You are committed an individual and you are walking on this journey of life with that individual. And that demands attention. Attention to feed and continue to nourish each other along this journey. And as soon as you stop doing that; things fall apart. Because there is hunger that begins to exist. That is not being sensible.
The both of you [pause] have wanted this for awhile [pause] and you have chosen a path that is really going to depend on both of you. Because you’ve chosen to move in a few short weeks to a place where you know no one [pause] and know very little of what it’s like or what they do. You might think you know some of the language [pause] but you’ve got to get to know the people [pause] and where you are. So you need to depend on each other. You need to feed each other. You need to nourish each other [pause] just as that reading speaks about Christ nourishing Issac. You must be the body and blood of Christ in each other. You must feed and recognize what it is that you love about her and cherish. You must feed and recognize what it is that you love about him and cherish that.
There’s an old saying that people who get married that it’s a 50/50 proposition. I hate to tell you, that it’s not. It’s not a 50/50 proposition. It’s 100%. All the time. From both of you. And that’s not always possible. So you have to break it up into different pieces. You have to recognize that Greg, when Angel is only giving 45%, how you make up the other 55%. And you have to recognize when he’s only giving 25% that you have to make up the other 75%; because the woman is always giving more. You know? It just happens that way. You’re not going to change each other. He is who he is, who he is. She is who she is, who she is. And there’s nothing that you can do that is going to change the person who you are presently holding in your hand. But you don’t get married to change them. You get married because you have been changed recently [pause] and you have been given the responsibility and the honor to reach across that table and to nourish each other and if you are willing to do that, everything that comes into your company will find that.
END
2:40 PM EST