'Beauty of marriage' extolled at annual Mass

By Emily Chaffins -

MIAMI | Martin and Ozema de Jesus raised 14 children during their 72-year marriage.

They were the longest married couple at the annual archdiocesan celebration of sacramental marriage, which takes place around Valentine’s Day and coincides with the U.S. bishops’ National Marriage Week (Feb. 7-14). This year’s Mass, celebrated Feb. 18, 2023 by Archbishop Thomas Wenski, brought as many as 212 couples to St. Mary Cathedral.

The couples invited to the celebration were marking 1, 25, 50 or more years of marriage. They had an opportunity before the Mass to take their photo with the archbishop. During the Mass they renewed their vows and also received a certificate commemorating their milestone anniversary.

While giving advice afterward to Pedro and Nathalie Gonzalez-Mourin – a couple marking their first anniversary and expecting their first child – Martin de Jesus echoed what Archbishop Thomas Wenski said during his homily: “Of course, I am not saying that it was all sweetness and light – because marriage is hard, it is difficult. But there are great lessons that all of us, but especially your children and grandchildren, can learn from you about the meaning of sacrifice and suffering.”

“The hardest part was having 14 children and being extremely poor and having to figure out every day how I was going to bring the food to sustain my 14 children,” Martin said.

But as the archbishop noted, it’s because of that commitment and sacrifice that “today, in you, we see something holy in the beauty of marriage, in the depth and beauty of love brought to full maturity, a mature love that knows true freedom because it is committed, a love tried and purified in the crucible of suffering and sacrifice, a love born of faith in Jesus and of obedience to his word. This is the love that casts out fear and overcomes hesitation; this is the love that knows that commitment to another, rather than limiting one’s freedom, actually frees one to love.”

Like the other couples at the celebration, Martin and Ozema de Jesus were accompanied by some of their children and grandchildren, including their youngest: Father Julio de Jesus, pastor of St. Benedict Parish in Hialeah.

Young or old, every couple had a unique story to share.

Hailing from the Church of the Little Flower in Coral Gables, twin sisters Christina and Victoria and their husbands were celebrating their one-year anniversaries. They renewed their marriage vows in the same church where Christina and Victoria’s parents were married. To add to the twin motif, their husbands have similar first names – Julien Plana and Julian Loret de Mola.

Pedro Gonzalez-Mourin said he and his wife Nathalie’s story “is a testament to the power of prayer.”

Before he met Nathalie, Pedro recalled, he “noticed a customer, an Orthodox Jew, praying.” Pedro asked him to “pray that God sends me a wife,” and around two weeks later, Pedro met Nathalie.

Sharing more wisdom born of decades of experience, Martin de Jesus’ advice to Pedro and Nathalie was to have “tranquility in the home and to always be united.”

“Mutual respect and mutual understanding is... the key,” said Ozema de Jesus, “and not only to make sure you’re taking care of your partner, but also to make sure you’re taking care of yourself.”

In response to a question from Nathalie, Ozema added that she and her husband’s preferred thing to do in the first year of marriage was simply “be together. We went to parties together, we did everything together, and we were waiting for children to come.”

Since Pedro and Nathalie are expecting their first child, a boy, they also asked the older couple for advice on raising children.

“To take care of them, to love them, to make sure that you listen to them and their problems,” Ozema told them, “and you also try to aid them in resolving any issues that may come their way.”