Although this is the year when we hear from St Luke’s Gospel, we begin with St John’s account of the Wedding at Cana – the first of St John’s ‘great signs’.  Traditionally this has been linked with the Epiphany as one of the first occasions when Jesus let his glory be known.  While early Christians had no special rite of marriage and continued to marry in accordance with local custom, marriage was not simply a secular reality.  Christ had blessed marriage by his presence at Cana. 

St Paul draws on the prophetic tradition reflected in our first reading when he speaks about Christian marriage as a great mystery (‘mysterion’ in Greek; ‘sacramentum’ in Latin), symbolising the relationship between Christ and the Church.  For the baptised marriage is a sacrament.  The love of Christ is enfleshed in the love of husband and wife, something that begins on the day of their wedding but is expressed daily as they seek to live out their vows in the presence of God and by his grace.  It was this sense that led the Christian community to develop its own rite of marriage as the centuries passed but it is not the ceremony that makes marriage the sacrament.  It is the very act of consent made by the spouses exchanging their mutual promises of love by word or gesture.  Let us pray today for all married couples and those planning marriage in the months ahead.