>>An oldish, Irish gentleman walks into a pub. And as he walks in, he hears some lads at the bar talking about marriage.

The older gentleman proudly says, “Well, I’ll be celebrating 50 years of marriage this year.”

And the lads said to him, “Well, what made it successful?”

He said, “Well, you have to be nice to her.”

They said, “Well, like what?”

He said, “Well, for example. For our 25th anniversary I took her over to Ireland.”

And they said, “Well, then what are you going to do for your 50th anniversary?”

He said, “I’m going to go back to Ireland and pick her up.”

[laughter]

Dark, Irish humor, I admit. The other side of that kind of humor and 50 years of committed love – recently at the parish, I had the privilege of celebrating a 50^th wedding anniversary.

A couple who stood before family and friends, over 50 years ago and said, “I take you in good times and bad. In sickness and in health. I’ll love and honor you all the days of my life.”

This elderly couple who had children and grandchildren and great grandchildren made a commitment of their love to one another in the sacrament of marriage. And they really, as I said to them, they enfleshed their vows. They really understood what those vows meant – good times and bad, sickness and health. Cause they had lived it.

There’s a certain kind of integrity that comes with honoring our commitments in life. And I think at the heart of the gospel today, Jesus is saying we must honor our commitments. Be faithful to the commitments that we have made in this life. And in doing that we enhance the lives of those that we have committed our love to and we give good example to world – to others, to family, and to friends. What it means to be in a good committed relationship.

We’re called as the disciples of the Lord Jesus to live lives of integrity that honor the commitments that we’ve made in life.