Ray and Arlie Gonsior from Grantsburg, married June 21, 1954, are celebrating their 70th anniversary in 2024. They were the longest-married couple at the diocesan anniversary Mass. (Catholic Herald photo by Jenny Snarski)
Jenny Snarski
Catholic Herald staff
On Saturday, July 13, dozens of married couples, some accompanied by family members, gathered for the Diocese of Superior’s annual Annniversary Jubliee Mass at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Superior.
The event recognizes married couples celebrating milestone anniversaries, offers them an opportunity to renew their vows and includes a luncheon with fellowship.
It also offers, as Bishop James Powers stated in his homily, a chance to “celebrate the gift of the sacrament of marriage.” He thanked the many people involved in organizing the Mass and meal that follows, their efforts to make the celebration “meaningful and beautiful.”
“Their efforts,” the bishop added, “are a witness to the value of each person here,” and an acknowledgment of the blessing and importance of marriage and family.
Recounting the numbers of couples celebrating milestone wedding anniversaries, Bishop Powers noted that more than 4,100 years of “wedded bliss” were present in person or via the livestream feed of the Mass.
“How important your witness as husband and wife is,” the bishop affirmed, “the witness of what it means to be family.” He went on to say that the Sacrament of Marriage celebrates “so much more than a marriage license and human contract.
“We gather to celebrate two of the oldest institutions in the world, marriage and family.” Bishop Powers preached. “We celebrate a supernatural reality. Instead of a contract, we celebrate a covenant … an eternal promise that the two of you made not only to each other, but also to God.” He added that God also made a promise to each couple on their wedding days. “We celebrate God’s promise to bless your union, to grace it with an over-abundance of joy.”
Then referencing the Gospel of the wedding feast at Cana, the bishop preached about “that very best of wine” provided by the Lord, a sign and symbol of the sacramental gift of his “divine strength in the hard times” that come to every marriage and family.
Bishop Powers said it is not an accident that God used the event of a wedding to perform his first miracle. He said it implies the importance of marriage and the family in God’s plan of salvation, as well as offers a metaphor that Jesus returned to time and again to describe his relationship with the church and our relationship with God.
“When Jesus makes more wine,” the bishop said, “he doesn’t just make a little or refill what they had. He used the special water jars for ceremonial washing; and he uses this moment to announce the arrival of God’s abundant and overflowing graces of redemption.”
Inviting Jesus to the wedding feast, the couple was given wine better than what they had provided for themselves and their guests.
“Our God’s love is true, total, free,” the bishop announced. “We just have to ask and be open to his love.”
“Time and again, Jesus uses the analogy of marriage and spousal relationship between the Father and us. How important that is,” he continued. Even though Jesus was not physically present at your weddings, the bishop said to the couples in the pews, “He was there.” He may not have worked a miracle like at Cana, “but he was there … And as that couple, you invited him and our God was with you; just as he’s been present every day and moment since.
“When you held each other’s hand, our God’s hands wrapped around yours. As you spoke your vows, God promised to give you the grace and strength you needed to be true to all you vowed that day, and to become that sacramental sign for all the world to see the love of God for his church, for each and every one of us. With a love that is permanent and life-giving.”
Bishop Powers preached that cooperating with God’s plan does not equate to an easy life or fun all the time. “But he does promise to be with you. To give you strength to face the crosses, challenges and disappointments. To compromise and forgive one another time and again. To put the needs of others ahead of one’s own so that the love could be like God’s.”
He then quoted St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians describing love as patient, kind, never rude, self-serving or quick tempered. A love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things.
“As you’ve held on to each other and refused to quit or take the easy way out,” Bishop Powers commended, “A sign and witness in our world; we celebrate that refusal today, and your willingness to continue to be that witness to us, to all the world.”
“My dear friends, how much more than ever before the church, our nation and the world is in need of that witness,” the bishop concluded, affirming God’s original plan for human love. “Your witness enriches the church and all of society.
“As you continue to love each other and to live your lives, you know it won’t always be sunrise and roses. Don’t let a day go by without showing that love to each other … without celebrating the joys.
“How important that is to your relationship, the strength you get from one another, the strength that you share in so many ways.”
He again thanked the couples for the gift that they have been, are and will continue to be. “May a day never go by that you don’t know that the Lord is still with you, still holding you by the hand giving you that strength and grace.”
He ended offering his personal prayer, “That the Lord God may continue to watch over, guide, guard and bless you every single day of your lives.”
Bishop Powers finally reminded them to hold to the command of the Blessed Virgin to the stewards at that first wedding feast where Jesus worked his miracle: “Do whatever he tells you.”
