Section 6

I know that many are embarrassed by what I am saying, and the cause of that embarrassment is sexual excess and lack of self-control. The way weddings are conducted and corrupted has brought marriage itself into disrepute. Yet “marriage is honorable, and the marriage bed undefiled.” Why be ashamed of what is honorable? Why blush at what is undefiled? Such shame belongs to heretics and to those who bring prostitutes into wedding celebrations. This is precisely why I want to cleanse marriage thoroughly: to restore it to its proper nobility and to close the mouths of the heretics.

God’s gift has been insulted—the very root of our generation—for much manure and filth has been piled around that root. Let us therefore clean it away through our discourse. Bear with me a little, since whoever clears away filth must endure its smell. I want to show that you should not be ashamed of the things I am explaining, but of the things you actually do. You pass over those actions without shame and blush instead at speaking about marriage itself; in doing so, you condemn God, who established it in this way.

Shall I explain how marriage is also a mystery of the Church? Christ came to the Church, and she came from Him, and He united Himself with her in a spiritual union. For Paul says, “I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin.” And that we are from Him, listen to what he says: we are “from His members and from His flesh.” Keeping all this in mind, let us not dishonor so great a mystery. Marriage is a type of Christ’s coming to the Church—and you get drunk at it? Tell me, if you saw an image of the emperor, would you dishonor it? Certainly not.

The customs practiced at weddings may appear indifferent, but they become causes of great evils. Everything there is filled with lawlessness. “Let no shameful speech, foolish talk, or coarse joking come from your mouth,” Paul says. Yet all those things are present there—shameful speech, foolish talk, and coarse joking—not merely present, but intensified. It has become a craft, and those who practice it receive great praise. Sin has become an art. People no longer commit it casually, but with effort and skill, and then the devil commands his own ranks. Where there is drunkenness, there is sexual disorder; where there is obscene speech, the devil is present, adding his own contribution. Tell me: while feasting on such things, are you celebrating the mystery of Christ and inviting the devil at the same time?

Perhaps you think I am being severe. But this too shows how deeply things have been distorted: the person who rebukes wrongdoing is laughed at for being strict. Do you not hear Paul saying, “Whatever you do, whether you eat or drink or do anything else, do everything for the glory of God”? Yet you do these things for disgrace and dishonor. Do you not hear the prophet saying, “Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice before Him with trembling”? Yet you give yourselves over without restraint.

Is it impossible to enjoy gladness and still remain safe? Do you want to hear beautiful songs? Ideally you would not need even this; nevertheless, I make allowance for it if you desire it. Do not listen to satanic songs, but spiritual ones. Do you want to see a chorus dancing? Look instead to the chorus of angels. “And how can we see them?” someone asks. Drive these other things away, and Christ Himself will come to such a wedding; and where Christ is present, the chorus of angels is present too.

If you wish, He will work wonders even now as He did then. He will make water into wine even now. More wonderfully still, He will transform this dissipated pleasure and this cold, scattered desire and turn it toward spiritual desire. This is what it means to make water into wine. Where flute-players rule the celebration, Christ is nowhere to be found; and even if He enters, He first drives them out and only then performs His wonder. What could be more unpleasant than this satanic procession, where everything is either without articulate meaning, or, when there are words, everything is shameful and offensive?