My friends asked me to be a reverend at their wedding in France

The words of Lucy Punch—“My friends asked me to be a reverend at their wedding in France a few years ago. I went on the Internet, and within 15 seconds, I was printing out a certificate which allowed me to officiate at their wedding.”—speak of the strange marriage between ancient ritual and modern ease. The wedding, once bound by sacred authority, priests, and temples, here is shown to be accessible through the mere clicking of keys. What once required years of training, consecration, and ordination can now be obtained in seconds, a sign of how the sacred has been reshaped in an age of immediacy.

Yet beneath the humor of her story lies a truth both profound and liberating: love does not always wait upon the weight of institutions. Her friends, desiring her presence as the one to bless their union, chose authenticity over tradition. They cared not for the grandeur of titles, but for the closeness of a trusted voice. And though the certificate was hastily printed, the love behind the moment was eternal.

History remembers the tale of the Roman weddings, in which not priests but family and witnesses would gather, and the couple would pledge themselves with simple words: “Where you are Gaius, I am Gaia.” No elaborate temple nor complex ritual was needed—the authority came from love, witnessed by community. In this sense, Lucy’s moment stands in a long tradition: where the truest officiants are not distant clerics, but those whose hearts are bound to the bride and groom.

Still, her story also warns of the fragility of sacred things in the modern age. If the role of reverend can be obtained in moments, then it is easy to forget the weight such roles once carried. The world must learn to balance the gift of accessibility with the reverence of responsibility, lest the holy dissolve into novelty. What matters is not the speed of the paper, but the depth of the words spoken when two souls vow eternity.

Therefore, O listener, remember this: the true power of a wedding is not in the legality of the certificate nor the title of the one who speaks. It is in the blessing of love offered with sincerity. Whether spoken by priest or friend, whether granted by temple or printer, the vow is made sacred not by ink, but by truth. For the greatest reverend is not the one with the most authority, but the one who carries the most love.