Will you be meaner than hell?

Homily

Nuptial Mass of Mikala Liley and Reagan Dricken

St. Lawrence Catholic Center at the University of Kansas

18 May 2024

Saturday of the 7th Week of Easter

AMDG

Mik and Reagan, are you meaner than hell?

You know exactly where I'm going with this.  You heard this very homily theme just six days ago, at your KU graduation.  It's true that I'm too lazy to come up with a new theme for your wedding homily, but it seemed to work fine last week, so why not run it back?

So are you or aren't you meaner than hell?

You know exactly what I mean by this, having listened to my Catholic Jayhawk homilies for years now.  Yet since I'm quickly running out of chances to preach at my beloved St. Lawrence, I have no problem reminding you once and for all that a Catholic Jayhawk is to be capable of risk, vulnerability, commitment, communion, sacrifice, influence and tenacity. These marks of a great story are not exactly the 7-fold gifts of the Holy Spirit, but in my opinion, they're not that far off.

Mik and Reagan, as your spiritual Father at KU I'm so proud of you on your wedding day because you are precisely the reason that St. Lawrence Center exists.  You are true Jayhawks, meaner than hell, fierce missionary disciples of Jesus Christ and ready to write one of the greatest stories of faith and love of this generation.  More than that, you are determined to defeat the greatest relational, moral and spiritual evils of this age.  Your marriage is a true  participation in the paschal mystery and redemptive mission of our Lord, and destined to bear fruit that lasts. We at SLC are so very proud of your both, and we could not love you any more, nor feel more privileged to support you as you give your life unto death in this sacred space so dear to so many of us.  Congratulations to you and everyone who has believed in you, and thank you for inviting us here for this moment.

Having meant all that, still why does it matter than you are meaner than hell today?  It matters because there truly is an enemy who will try through lies to sow seeds of doubt and fear in your heart as you approach the altar of God. To defeat this enemy, you must be ferocious Jayhawks, meaner than hell.  You may not know this because you don't follow football or TikTok as much as the rest of us, but traditional Catholic marriage, the very kind you desire today, was on trial this week, especially the idea that marriage is worth giving your whole life to.

My dearest Mik, what are you thinking?  Your decision to get married just six days after busting your Jayhawk tail to achieve a hard-won architecture degree, was especially ridiculed this week by a woke mob who esteems privacy and choice as the surest path to equality.  In the face of this, you choose obedience and surrender, and courageously place your entire life and achievements under the mission of your husband, Reagan.  Reagan, really? What are you thinking?

Reagan, your faith is also on trial and is being labeled as toxic and oppressive.  In response, you double down on the words of St. Paul, who even though participating in the misogyny of his time said in Christ the least misogynistic thing ever, telling husbands to love their wives just as Christ loves His bride the Church, bathing her in the truth of His promises and prayer, cleansing Her by the chaste sacrifice of His own body.  You too Reagan, eschew privacy and choice in response to what you understand to be the gift and responsibility of your life.

Yet what makes the two of you more woke than anyone around you, is the attention you each give to perseverance in prayer.  Jesus Himself said the greatest evils can only be defeated by prayer.  So in prayer most of all you have learned that the battle of the sexes is not ultimately a competition for equality and control between you, but a holy obedience to love the good of another more than yourself.  In prayer you have been discerned participation in the eternal marriage of Christ to His Church by echoing His eucharistic words with your vows - this is my body which is 'for you.'  In prayer you have found the nuptial meaning of your body to be your deepest truth and reality, and the gift of yourself to each other as a sign of Christ's love for you, and a true participation in His passion, to be the fulfillment of the deepest desire of your heart.

Praise God that in prayer you've both found something worth fighting for, and even more than that, worth dying for.  Be meaner than hell, my little Jayhawks, in being faithful til death do you part. This is our faith, the true faith, revealed by Jesus Christ, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

+mj