Wedding homily: Overcoming the fear of commitment

A powerful wedding homily for a young bride and groom

Family Foundations, Jan/Feb 2016

If you want to enjoy a beautiful wedding homily, check out this text from Father Stephen Wang, the priest who married CCL members Maria and Jake Poston, the young couple featured on the cover of our new January-February issue of Family Foundations.

“He gave such a beautiful homily he had everyone in tears,” Maria said.

The newlyweds from Atchison, Kansas, shared their visceral response to the homily with CCL.

“Listening to the homily and being surrounded by all my friends and family, I felt so loved and blessed to have the life that I have been given,” Maria said. “I was so grateful to have someone who is so close to me be able to say our wedding.”

His message hit home with the bride and groom, who were both 21, an age some had questioned during their engagement. “I really liked the way Father Steve tied our wedding homily into the fear of commitment that permeates our society today,” Maria said. “It is a conversation that Jake and I had had with many of our peers, and even adults, and they wanted to know why we had the confidence to get married at 21 and commit to each other so early in life. We always told them that we weighed the benefits of dating longer against the benefits of getting married and we decided that, since we were planning on getting married after graduation anyway, why wait an extra year? I have found that, for me, the fear of commitment stems somewhat from the fear of the unknown and the fear of doing unfamiliar things, and Jake and I realized that we could never be 100 percent prepared for everything that came our way, but that we do better when we do things together and have the support of both of our wonderful families and friends.”

Jake also loved listening to the homily preached during his wedding Mass. “I was amazed at the fact that the homily not only related to us, as an ‘abnormally young couple in society’s eyes,’ but to everyone in the audience. He was able to grab everyone’s attention and teach a lesson about the beauty of marriage and the courage that it takes, especially today, to embark on the journey of married life.”

The groom hoped Father Steve’s homily could serve an evangelical purpose. “I was especially excited for some of my friends from high school, who don’t exactly share all the same values as myself, to hear the wise words Father Steve had for them about today’s common fear of commitment amongst young people,” Jake said. “We were so blessed to have such a great man and friend say our wedding! It was an incredible homily that helped make for an incredible day.”