Take This, and Be Immortal
A Sermon for a Wedding
N. and N., as I have had the pleasure of being a witness to your love story playing out over the last few years, I have been reminded of other love stories. Nestled in the middle of an ancient Roman novel, Apuleius’ The Golden Ass, is one of my favorites: the story of Cupid and Psyche.
The story follows a young princess named Psyche, who is so beautiful that common people have begun to worship her as Venus (the goddess of beauty). This ends up angering the real Venus, who sends her son Cupid (the god of love) to avenge his mother. Venus orders Cupid to punish Psyche by causing her to fall helplessly in love with some kind of wretched man, a man far beneath her. Cupid sets out to do so as a dutiful son, but his plans change when he meets Psyche and promptly falls in love with her himself.
Hijinks ensue: Cupid woos Psyche, Psyche enthusiastically returns his love, both Venus and Psyche’s jealous older sisters attempt to interfere when they discover the relationship, and the couple tragically falls apart. But love finds a way, and by the end of the story, there is a glorious wedding with the entire pantheon of gods in attendance. Jupiter (the king of the gods) hands Psyche a cup of ambrosia (the drink of the gods, which bestows immortality upon any mortal who drinks it). “Take this,” he tells her, “and be immortal. Never shall Cupid quit the tie that binds you, but this marriage shall be perpetual for you both.”1 Psyche drinks, becomes a goddess, and is united with Cupid forever.
For those of us familiar with the New Testament, certain aspects of this story may seem strangely familiar. The author of the first epistle of John reminds us that the God of the Bible, the true and only God, is the fullness of love; “God is love,” he writes (1 John 4:7-8 NRSVUE). And this God of love comes to us on a mission, not to punish us, but to save us and give us the gift of everlasting life with him. This is the ultimate love story. How does this God of love appear to us? As a glorious, glowing apparition? As an invisible presence? No. God comes to us in Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God who descended from heaven and took on a human nature for our sake: “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9 NRSVUE). God’s becomes one of us in order to woo us, give us everlasting life, and unite us with himself forever.
But God’s love for us in Christ is not without its pain and sacrifice. God’s love for us is taken to its furthest extent when Christ sacrifices his very life for us on the cross in order to save us from our own wretchedness: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10 NRSVUE). By joining us in our death, dying like one of us, Christ makes a way for us to join in his resurrection life. As our true spouse, Christ offers his whole life to us.
Today we have come to celebrate the love between N. and N. This love began with a chance encounter, and has grown into something powerful and life-changing; each of them has wooed and been wooed, loved and been loved by the other. This love is a beautiful thing! But we have also come to celebrate the love God has for us. N. has seen the glimmer of divine beauty in the beauty of N., and N. has caught a glimpse of divine love in the love of N. Through the tenderness and commitment of N. and N., all those around them catch a glimpse of the tenderness and commitment God expresses toward us. This means that their love must be deeply sacrificial as well; soon we will all hear them pledge their entire lives to each other.
In the days before his death, Jesus took a loaf of bread and cup of wine in his hands and offered it to his disciples as a sign of his sacrificial love for us. “Take, eat; this is my body” he says of the loaf, and of the cup, he says “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28 NRSVUE). We will celebrate this same meal—which is the Eucharist—in just a few moments. This is not just a reenactment of that meal two thousand years ago, but is also a means of receiving the life of Christ now, and a sign of the future meal we will share with Christ at the end of time—a divine wedding in which God will unite himself with us forever. In this meal, Christ offers his entire life to us as our spouse. It is as if he hands us a cup of ambrosia, saying “Never shall I quit the tie that binds you and I, but this marriage shall be perpetual for us both.”
Each time any of us celebrate this meal, we too celebrate a wedding: the glorious wedding with Christ that awaits us in the future. But for N. and N., this meal reveals another layer to their union with one another: the union of each of them with Christ, who is their true spouse.2 Each time they celebrate this meal, they renew their love for each other, rooting and anchoring themselves more fully in Christ’s love. This is why, after the meal has concluded, the priest will lead us to pray for them with these words:
By the power of this sacrifice, O Lord,
accompany with your loving favor
what in your providence you have instituted
so as to make of one heart in love
those you have already joined in this holy union
and replenished with the one Bread and the one Chalice.
“By the power of this sacrifice”—that is, the Eucharist—we will pray that God strengthen the marriage bond established between N. and N. in our presence today, so that they be “one heart.” We will pray that in the Eucharist they find a wellspring of divine love to nourish their human love for each other.
N. and N., in this moment and in many moments after this, I encourage you to lavish your love upon each other, and look through each other to Christ who lavishes his love upon you. To family, friends, and loved ones who have joined us today, I encourage you, in this moment and many moments after this, to love N. and N., and look through their relationship—because in it you will catch glimpses and glimmers of the God who loves you.
Apuleius, The Golden Ass, or Metamorphosis, trans. E. J. Kenney (London: Penguin Books, 2004)
Especially in this paragraph, I am indebted to insights from Timothy P. O’Malley, Off the Hook: God, Love, Dating, and Marriage in a Hookup World (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2018), particularly the fifth chapter, titled “Lift Up Your Hearts”.