[On the 2nd of May last I married a nephew of mine, and this is more or less what I said at the wedding Mass:]

Monica and Enrique: I’ll tell you what happened to me the other day when I had planned to think out what I was going to tell you on your wedding. I opened my e-mail, which is my first work every morning to attend to my Web mail, and one of the messages, from an unknown person as most of them are, said the following: “I’m writing to you from Montevideo in Uruguay. I’ve just attended a wedding, and at the Mass, instead of the usual readings from Holy Scripture, they have read a chapter from a book by Carlos G. Vallés on the meaning of YES. I’ve liked it very much, and as I’m going to get married soon I would like to have it. Could you help me get that book?”

I thought that if my book could serve as liturgical reading at a wedding, it could also be of use as a sermon. Here are some passages from it.

“It all began with a ‘Yes’. Mary’s ‘Yes’ in her Nazareth home to the waiting angel. There never was a higher enterprise or a bolder programme than the one proposed by a heavenly messenger to an earthly maiden in brief and simple words. First, a necessary question and a clear explanation. And then the ‘Yes’. No conditions, no negotiations, no reservations. Mary said ‘Yes’. Come what may. Total openness and final commitment. Be it pain of joy, meeting or parting, death or resurrection. Each event will come at its time and in its way because the door is open, the heart is ready, and heaven is waiting. This is the answer God likes, and this is the disposition he seeks in us to launch his plans of redemption. God does not like conditions, doubts, delays. He expects from us a clear and pointed and definitive ‘Yes’. Then he moves into action with all the might of his own power and all the wisdom of eternity. And redemption begins.

St Paul calls Jesus ‘Yes’. He does so as he begins his second letter to the Corinthians and defends himself from the accusation some had thrown at him that he had first promised to go to Corinth and then had changed his mind, as though he were irresponsibly toying with ‘Yes’ and ‘No’. The mere thought of such fickleness horrifies Paul. He wanted to be and to appear clear and clean and committed to his faith and his apostolate without a shade of doubt or hesitation of half truths or political dealings; and, annoyed as he was at the unfair accusation, he soars to theological heights and asserts that Jesus is the eternal ‘Yes’ to the promises and the plans of God. The best definition of Jesus. Jesus is all Yes.

The vows of religious men and women are also a ‘Yes’ at three voices. Poverty, chastity, obedience. A clear and resounding ‘Yes’ to the call that was strongly felt, wisely discerned, and enthusiastically accepted in gratefulness and joy. A lifelong ‘Yes’ to the ideals that seal the commitment, and to the service that enhances the offering.

And marriage is also a mutual and valiant ‘Yes’ before the tender responsibility of love and support, of life and family, of the good of the person and the welfare of society. Whatever is great in human life, whatever is noble and valuable and lasting, is the open and trustful ‘Yes’ to all that is to come. Every ‘Yes’ is an act of faith.

Our whole life is a long learning to say ‘Yes’. If we say ‘Yes’ to life with fullness and confidence, we can go on to say ‘Yes’ to all its moments, big and small, in common conversation and in daily events, and then our word acquires strength and our life has meaning. Without this fundamental ‘Yes’ of radical commitment, our life would be empty of meaning and devoid of strength. Life is affirmation.

I love the way you pronounce the word, my friend. I am fascinated to hear you say ‘Yes!’ I told you so. It is music on your lips, it is a burst of life, it is a generous and joyful expression of all that you are and you want us all to be with that courageous openness and that spontaneous originality that are your own life and your gift to us all. It is a swift syllable, a sharp note, a shooting spark. It is an act of faith. Have you realised it? Have you noticed that when you say ‘Yes’ you are asserting life, you are trusting God, you are invoking Providence to come and uphold your confidence and make true your word? When you say ‘Yes!’ with all the energy and vibration you put into it, you are making everybody around you believe in life, fall in love with the world and ensure eternity. Every ‘Yes!’ from your lips is a sermon, a testimony, a message of grace and joy for us who hear you. My ears are resounding now with the fullness of that ‘Yes!’ so clear, so valiant, so much your own. It helps me love life.

Our ‘Yes’ opens us to life, to grace, to the Spirit. When Mary said ‘Yes’ to the angel, the Spirit came upon her. When you say now your ‘Yes’ to each other, you are also opening yourselves to a new life, and we all look forward to seeing you flourish in a new family with all the blessings of all of us who love you.”

[I’ll add here something I did not say in my sermon.] After the Montevideo email about the ‘Yes’ chapter for a wedding, I received another email, this time from Mexico, in which another unknown correspondent tells me a good friend of hers had died, and at the funeral they had read out… a chapter from a book of mine. Well, no, it is not the same as here, but another one on “The Nimble Grasshopper” in my book “And the Butterfly Said…”, which, apparently, was the favourite one of the deceased as it described his own way of life. Well, if my books can be used at weddings as well as at funerals, I cannot wish for more.