October 7, 2011
Golden Jubilee celebration packs Good Shepherd Church
Participants in the Golden Jubilee Celebration listen intently to the homily given by Bishop Charles C. Thompson. (Message photo by Paul R. Leingang) Click for a larger version.
By PAUL R. LEINGANG (Message editor)
Good Shepherd Church in Evansville was packed with participants for the annual diocesan-wide Golden Jubilee Celebration, Oct. 2.
Mass at the annual event was celebrated for the first time with Bishop Charles C. Thompson. The congregation included couples from throughout the diocese who have celebrated 50 or more years of marriage.
Bishop Thompson noted that Jesus used the events of the day when he was teaching his followers, and pointed out it was appropriate that the celebration of marriage was taking place on the Respect Life Sunday.
He reminded the congregation that parents are the first teachers of the faith to their children.
“The kingdom is in our midst,” he said, and marveled that two couples celebrating 71 years of marriage were among the couples listed in a compilation of all eligible couples in the diocese.
“You didn’t get here by taking each other for granted,” he observed. Marr-iage is a covenant, not a contract requiring each spouse to give 50 percent, he said. Marriage is a covenant with each spouse giving “100 percent — even if you can’t get back the same amount.”
He spoke of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. “God gave us all 100 percent,” he said.
He suggested that giving 100 percent includes the understanding that “marriage is not what I must endure from my spouse, but what my spouse must endure from me.”
As a sacrament, “Marriage is an outward sign of inward grace,” he said, telling the couples, “you have to go out of yourself” to your family, your friends and your neighbors. “Love has to be expressed, in word and in action.”
Each couple who arrived at the celebration received a booklet listing all of the couples celebrating 50 or more years, whether they were present at the Mass or unable to attend.
Two couples have reached 71 years of marriage: Cletus and Dolores Flittner, members of Christ the King Church in Evansville, and Lester and Caroline Merder of St. Joseph Church in Jasper. The Flittners attended the celebration, as did William and Jessie McConnell of St. Joseph Church in Princeton, who observed 70 years of marriage.
Celebrating 50 years of marriage this year were 76 couples. The booklet listed a total of about 635 couples from 50 to 71 years.