The Honeymoon Symphony

By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | Jun 01, 2026

The Blessed Trinity, as expressed in the Creed, is the foundation of the Catholic faith. The perfect love within the Godhead is an impenetrable mystery. Yet love between a man and a woman and within a family provides us with one of the clearest images of God’s interpersonal love.

Among the most touching scenes depicting Christ’s love is His encounter with Peter after the Resurrection. Jesus allows Peter to repair his threefold denial during the Passion with a threefold profession of love. In the Greek text, there is a revealing interplay between sacrificial love and friendship love (cf. John 21:15-17). Jesus first asks Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” using the language of sacrificial love. Peter responds with the language of friendship: “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus asks the same question a second time and receives the same response. Then, in His third question, Jesus graciously adopts Peter’s own language of friendship. Peter is grieved that Jesus asks him a third time, but he answers, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus then entrusts His flock to Peter: “Feed my sheep.”

Jesus carefully and kindly encourages Peter to fortify his friendship with Him through a sacrificial resolve to remain faithful forever. In time, Peter will lay down his life for Christ. Jesus, the Divine Psychologist, brings out the best in human love, just as He challenges us to love with the sacrificial love that reflects the life of the Blessed Trinity.

We send newlywed lovebirds off to their glorious honeymoons, and before long, they begin building a nest of their own. Moms and dads love their babies. The Church loves babies, too. We need babies.

But babies ordinarily arise from a long chain of loves. The links in the chain are simple enough: Boy meets girl. Boy and girl agree to have lunch, take in a movie, or take a walk in the mountains. Boy and girl have fun and return to their respective households…at a reasonable hour.

They may date again next week. Then again, they may part amicably. No worries. Lifelong commitments are not made in a day. But they may pick up where they left off. They may even fall in love and get engaged. They methodically, playfully, and chastely prepare for their wedding day and await their honeymoon.

Before the exchange of vows, the priest or deacon asks the couple three questions regarding their intentions:

1. Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage?
2. Will you love and honor each other as husband and wife for the rest of your lives?
3. Will you accept children lovingly from God and bring them up according to the law of Christ and His Church?

Then comes the exchange of promises:

I, N., take thee, N., for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part.

By placing the honeymoon in its proper place after the wedding, boy and girl grow in self-control and virtue. As they grow in self-control, they learn how—after the wedding—they can give themselves in their entirety during the honeymoon. They do not put the honeymoon before the wedding day. Sometimes a good Confession helps restore the proper order of things.

After many years, especially during silver and golden anniversaries, faithful couples often revisit the scene of their wedding in pictures and memories. As they age and learn to live together in peace, they frequently remember the love of their spouses—their brides and grooms—on that beautiful wedding day.

The Church reminds us that a valid natural marriage is open to children, faithful, and indissoluble—“until death do we part.” For the baptized, there is a fourth element: the sacramental exchange of promises recognized by the Church.

What does this have to do with the Blessed Trinity? Everything. The chaste love of husband and wife, together with their household—or barnyard—of children, is an image of the communal life, mysterious love, and perfect unity of the Trinity. God is one. Husband and wife are one in His grace. God is generous. Husband and wife are faithful and generous, always open to new life, and refuse to place obstacles before that gift. The Catholic Church bears witness to man’s dignity.

The external and internal sins against chastity degrade our God-given humanity. If a couple celebrates the honeymoon during the first date or shortly thereafter, they render wedding vows laughable. Unrepentant cohabitation transforms the liberating exchange of promises into words of slavery: “Now I’m stuck with this person!” Pornography, contraception, and so-called “LGBTQ” behavior reduce the honeymoon symphony to an irrational cacophony of dehumanization.

Every married person realizes that a happy marriage is not easy. Fortified with God’s grace, it comes with the sacrificial love of Jesus. In a sense, every wedding is a kind of funeral, because during every wedding, the Bride and Groom promise to die to themselves and to live for others. Once again, the Christian paradox bears beautiful fruit: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)

The Church delights so much in honeymoons and the glorious marital embrace that she teaches that IVF procedures dehumanize marital relations. There is no such thing as an “IVF baby.” Every baby is a child of God with inestimable dignity. And God loves the marital embrace that is essential to the ensemble. Too often, the world misses the glorious Catholic honeymoon symphony: love, marriage, honeymoon, and babies.

At every Mass, Jesus goes forth to meet His Bride, the Church, and feeds His people with Holy Communion, sustaining them in His love. Contemplating the mystery of the Blessed Trinity as revealed by Jesus through the graces of Pentecost helps us understand the beauty of the honeymoon symphony.