In Sickness and In Health

Chapter Forty

Chapter Forty

As they walked in a slow and stately manner down the long aisle of the church, Lila looked up at her father and whispered, "Slow down, it's not a race. Is it okay, your leg?"

The smile never left her face even as she said the words. Steven was standing at the end of the aisle in his dress uniform, smiling ear to ear. "I'm fine, Kitten," Jamie replied. "Leg is stiff but I'm okay...don't you worry."

They took the final four steps to the alter. The music stopped and Jamie and Lila also halted. Jamie stood proudly with Lila still on his arm, she was his for a few more precious seconds.

The priest stepped forward, the same priest that had baptized Lila and Joey, Father Conti. "Dearly beloved, we are gathered together here in the sight of God and in the presence of these witnesses to join together Lila Joy and Steven Andrew in holy matrimony; which is an honorable estate, instituted by God, signifying unto us the mystical union which exist between Christ and his Church; which holy estate Christ adorned and beautified with his presence in Cana of Galilee. It is therefore not to be entered into unadvisedly, but reverently, discreetly, and in the fear of God." He paused and looked up at Jamie, "Who gives this woman in marriage?"

Jamie looked at Lila, her life flashing before his eyes, from her harrowing birth to her stripper phase, to every piano lesson to her high school prom, his baby was grown...a woman. "Her mother and I do," Jamie replied his voice a hint higher in pitch than usual.

Jamie turned and sat in the pew beside Eddie. Their hands intertwined. "Are you okay?" she whispered. Jamie nodded, he didn't trust his voice. He held Eddie's hand tight for strength as the priest continued with the ceremony.

Eddie laid her head on Jamie's shoulder as Joe walked up to offer the first reading. Steven had asked him to be part of the bridal party but he had politely declined, "Nah, the only cop in with a bunch of hose jockeys, I just can't see that happening," Joe had declared at one Sunday dinner.

Steven's cousin, Autumn, who was also working for the fire department, in dispatch did the second reading. Eddie felt Jamie getting fidgety against her. "Are you okay? Are you sore?"

"No, I'm okay, leg's cramping up a little bit, that's all." That wasn't all, Jamie had to reach his pockets in the next little while and the way Eddie was draped, he couldn't do it. "Can you just up so I can stretch a little?" he whispered, neither took this eyes off their daughter.

Father Conti began his homily after reading the gospel Lila and Steve had chosen. It was about the sanctity and sacrifice of marriage, suddenly Jamie felt the Father's gaze on him. Lila and Steven, all of us gathered here today, your families, relations and friends are delighted to be able to share the happiness of this day with you. All married couples here today have an added reason for joy today, because Steven and Lila, the occasion of your wedding today sparks off memories of their own weddings and reminds them of the commitment they've made to each other and that their marriage is a sacrament blessed by God, and so Steven and Lila your wedding here today is a reminder to them to cherish and foster their own marriages, to seek God's blessing on their own marriages once again today."

Jamie looked down into Eddie's eyes. They had been tested many times in their marriage, her illness, money troubles, a continuous tension between their fathers, his own stroke...but they had made it through because of the power of the love the Father was speaking about as if he had experienced it himself. Jamie realized, as he looked at Danny and Linda, Steven's parents, Nikki and her husband Colin...he had, through all of the families and unions he'd blessed or seen grow in his years as a priest.

"We discover something amazing when we consider God's love for us. Not only does God love us but God has to teach us how to love him. There is a sense in which it takes a long time to learn the true meaning of loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Just look at the disciples in the Gospels. How long it took them to learn. There is a sense in which it takes a long time to learn the true meaning of the first commandment, to have no strange gods in our life. Something similar could possibly be said about the love of two people united in the sacrament of marriage. Sometimes it may be necessary to learn to love in a new way in marriage. The one whom you love in marriage may sometimes have to teach you how to love properly. Love matures in marriage. Love grows in marriage. This will happen in a very special way if, as we pray, God will bless you with children as you are open to God's gift of new life. Maturing in love and being taught to love by the one whom you love is surely what the Gospel reading from St. Paul to the Romans intends, that you chose for this wedding Mass."