Doubt, Marriage and the Passing Years

We had a great time last night celebrating the birthday of BustedHalo's development coordinator, Brittany Janis in downtown Manhattan. On Monday, my wife, Marion and I celebrate 7 years of marriage. So blogging has been light with all the festivities.

Still some reflections:

Statistics show that if you can be married for seven years that you're likely to stay married (the dreaded 7 year itch--which Lou Costello once said he had and scratched real fast and got rid of it in three and a half years!). So it looks like we did it. I tell Marion that she's stuck with me now. She seems OK with that possibility so I guess I'm still amusing enough to stick around.

As years pass I'm reminded in today's gospel of Doubting Thomas that we do not know what will come after us--but in marriage we have faith that we will go through it together. Living in that hope is sometimes difficult and only intimacy--touching the deep wounds that we all have helps us believe. I need to be in touch with what wounds Marion has undoubtedly, but I also need to believe that she will continue to be there for me despite her wounds and my own--and know more importantly that even despite the wounds that I all too often create and even re-open for her, Marion remains my wife, forgiving me and calling me into a deeper love relationship.

The Gospel calls us to believe without seeing. As we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and other great moments in our lives we also need to have faith to believe that God can see us through anything, that there is really nothing to fear and that doubting only reminds us that we are not tied enough to the woundedness that we all share and calls us to be back in touch with those and believe once again.