The resurrection of Jesus from the dead is what our lives as Christian believers is all about. If Jesus didn’t really rise from the dead then Catholicism and its sacraments are all a fraud proving to non-believers that faith is only for weak people. Christ’s resurrection from the dead helps us to see that God recreates a new heaven and a new earth through raising us up from sin and death and transforming our world. So when was the last time that you brought up Christ’s rising from the dead in your pre-Cana conversations? 

A recent Sunday Gospel retold the story of the Widow of Nain who lost her son to death. “Do not weep,” Christ’s says to the Widow. To her son who had died he proclaims, “Young man, I tell you arise!”  Hearing this Gospel read from the pulpit I immediately recalled how important it was for me to have heard something similar in my own life - especially during our preparation for Holy Matrimony. I’ve never come close to physical death, but I do know and can attest to effect that sin wrecks upon our lives when we allow that light of life in our minds, bodies, and souls to be dimmed or even extinguished by personal sin and its consequences. But I didn't stay dead in sin! What followed was even better... resurrection! I remember the moment when my bride walked up the aisle to meet me at the altar; that great verse from Revelation pointing to the power of the Resurrection echoed in mind: “Look, I make all things new!” 

Certainly my reading of this wonderful passage is personal. I am convinced, however, this truth and freedom is a great gift to be given to the next generation of young people getting married. Whenever we speak to those individuals and couples who are were sexually active before marriage I always encourage them to hear and pray about what God can do in their lives through His mercy, particularly in the sacrament of confession. 

Many of us enter into marriage with spiritual scars from the past.  We even may have the tendency to think that we cannot really live as faithfully as we would like and cannot have the Holy Marriage we always wanted. The good news for all us though is we can!  Like the Widow of Nain and her son, whose experience of sorrow and death led to resurrection, we too can have a new life in Christ in our minds, emotions, and passions. Married couples, and those preparing for the Sacrament of Matrimony, can know the personal power of the resurrection believing that in God all things are possible!  No matter how un-Christ like our lives were in the past, something powerful happens in the individual who has faith and who hopes in the Lord’s promise to be with us and help us along our way. 

Let us all pray for those preparing for Holy Matrimony today. Let us also not overlook how important it is to remind young and often uncatechized couples the reason why Christians believe in Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection and His triumph over sin and death. We can all be a part of witnessing to them the beauty of becoming a new creation and experiencing new life in Christ.