Before yes, a surprise: when faith goes through a love story

Jessica and Ryan McGinty discover that they were baptized together as spouses. It is the fact told in the original interview of CBS Boston: a coincidence that immediately ignites the curiosity. A surprise that invites you to rediscover the meaning of Baptism and the freedom of marriage.

The detail that makes the look stop

A discovery like this has the strength of the photographs found in a drawer. Move our point of observation: it reminds us that the past contains details of which we have not been aware, and that some questions come only long after.

In front of a love story we are spontaneous looking for a thread. It's a human way of tidying up memories. But a coincidence, even moving, is not enough to prove that a relationship has been predetermined. Faith does not ask us to transform an encounter into a formula or to invent an explanation for every cross of life.

Baptism, before every romantic story

For the Catholic Church, Baptism has its own value, independent of what will happen in the person's sentimental life. The Catechism, at number 1213, presents it as the foundation of Christian life and entry into the other sacraments: through it the baptized enters into the Church and into life in Christ.

This means who will marry, who will remain alone, who will choose a consecrated life and who will cross paths that today cannot imagine. The dignity received does not depend on the arrival of a couple. It is a precious point, especially when we tell love as if it were the only goal capable of completing a biography.

From memory to free choice

Catholic marriage brings to the centre a very concrete word: consensus. In numbers 1625-1628 the Catechism clarifies the role of the freedom of spouses and the absence of constraints. No details of the past can replace the decision of two adult persons.

It is a perspective that makes love more serious and, together, more beautiful. Yes has value because it is chosen. Not because a date, a place or a photograph seems to impose it. Even a story full of coincidences must find its truth in the present: in the way two people listen, respect and assume the responsibilities of the relationship.

The questions to take home

This news may become an opportunity to ask your family something: what memory do you keep of my Baptism? Who was there? Is there a photograph? It is a personal proposal, not an indication of what the protagonists of the service have done.

You can also talk to your parish to learn more about the meaning of the celebration, especially if the religious experience has remained far away for years. We do not have to pretend to remember what we lived as children. We can decide to understand it now, with the questions and maturity that we have today.

A story doesn't have to look like a movie to be

Those who do not find spectacular coincidences in their lives have not received a less worthy story. There are loves that begin in an ordinary way and bonds that grow without a surprising detail to tell friends. There are also people for whom this is a period of waiting, loneliness or change.

The good is not measured by the script. It is recognized in choices, in attention, in freedom left to the other. We can smile in front of a surprise and guard this certainty: no one must have a fairytale past to be loved. The most important part of its history remains open to today's choices.