Part 1 | Christ

In this first part I want to focus on the person of Christ – in the Word, in the eucharist, in the flesh, in the Lord’s supper, as our new and eternal covenant, as our bridegroom, and at our wedding feast. Part 1 is center on Jesus our Christ.

Word

“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” – Gospel of Saint John

When Father Martin Luther decided to forsake his vows to the church and attempted to reform her from without rather than within, he created the doctrine often referred to as Sola Scriptura. I never understood this doctrine even as an Evangelical Protestant Christian. I will skip for the moment that I would never have called myself Evangelical or Protestant, but that was the reality. I preferred to use basic terms like Christian. But since Catholics and Protestants and Orthodox are all Christians, it’s sometimes helpful to know what type of Christian, hence we do a very man-like thing and name things, just like we did in the beginning while in the garden of Eden. And the churches I went to all fell within the Protestant portion of Christendom.

What always confused me about Sola Scriptura is I felt it was impossible to build a religion off a text. Otherwise, what would stop someone from making a religion out of Harry Potter books? Or a country off a text, even a text as great as our Declaration of Independence? But people are united by more than a common love for written words. We form communities by relationships with each other. A country is made up of its citizens, not its writings. Its citizens will compose writings. But even writings need citizens, because without interpreters, texts are only dead letters. What matters most for Christians is the relationship with Jesus, not writings about Jesus. Jesus himself told religious leaders of his time, “you search the scriptures thinking that they contain eternal life and yet you fail to realize that they point to me. And you do not come to me to receive life.” This text highlights something I always felt, I always felt a little out of touch with Protestant teachings because I never understood Sola Scriptura, and still don’t. Fortunately for me, the bible doesn’t teach it either. In fact, the bible teaches us to come to Jesus to receive life.

One of many issues is, if you could start a religion based off religious texts, what would stop others from starting religions? And I think that’s exactly what we find today. New Protestant churches and communities continue to be founded out of division from previous communities. When I look at the book of Acts, I see the church laying hands and sending off its missionaries. But when we get to the start of the Protestant communities, no one from within the church is sending off Martin Luther, or Jean Calvin, or King Henry. Instead, these men are founding new churches, and in the case of King Henry, stealing from existing churches. This is not a way to start a religion or a church. Christ was sent. And Christ sent others. And these sacred religious texts were not meant to bring division but unity to the body of Christ. Jesus himself said on the night of the last supper, “Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me so that they may be one just as we are.” A few moments later he also prayed “and I pray not only for them but also for those who believe in me through their word, so that they may be all one.” Powerful prayer and last words for unity by our savior at his last supper. Would he see unity today? Would the church today seem one, holy, universal and apostolic? Only the Catholic church can say yes. The Protestants have divided thousands upon thousands of times, and the Orthodox have become state churches. Only the Catholic church crosses the seas and centuries, the countries and continents, and remains one, whole, holy, apostolic and universal. It is the Catholic church – the heart and center of Christendom – who finds ways to unite the Protestant and Orthodox churches, if they would be united.

And that’s why I have grown to love and appreciate and understand the Catholic approach to sacred scripture. The sacred texts are meant to point us to Christ, and not be used as justification to divide us from the one church he established with his apostles. The sacred scriptures were never meant to be the basis to establish new churches, they were written for the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church. And in the mass, we are to hear the scriptures so that we share in the one faith, one baptism, one love, and one life as we prepared to be one – body, blood, soul and divinity – with our savior as we receive our Lord in the Eucharist.

Eucharist

“Truly, truly, I say unto you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.” – Jesus of Nazareth

The Bread of Life discourse is what opened my eyes to what’s different between Catholic and Protestant communities. And the irony, for me, is this is exactly where Catholics hold to the literal interpretation of the text and Christ’s words, whereas Protestants do not believe Christ meant what he said or even what the Scriptures recorded. This a great example of many that highlights ways Sola Scriptura breaks down. The natural end to Sola Scriptura leads to either one church (like the Catholic church), where everyone agrees on key fundamental interpretations, or tens of thousands of churches (like the Protestant churches), where each church has its own set of interpretations. And I can’t think of anything more important than the eucharist as to what separates the Catholic church and the Protestant churches. Nothing else matters. Hard to believe, but truly nothing else matters. The eucharist is everything. Let me explain how I came to believe this.

There was a 3-year period in my life where I read a gospel book every weekend. I just went in order. One weekend Matthew, the next Mark, then Luke, and then John. I loved John weekends because it was different compared to the other three synoptic gospels. After a while, I really started loving and looking forward to the long passages of Christ speaking in Saint John’s gospel. And I don’t know why, but the Bread of Life discourse in chapter 6 always grabbed my attention. I think it had to do with the many “Truly, truly I say unto you” statements and the curious and radical statements Christ was making. John is a repetitive writer, and he repeats lines and themes and messages in glorious ways. Later, I watched the Gospel of John with my mom, a movie that did the book line by line, and I remember her saying “Jesus didn’t really say that did he? That’s crazy.” And I agreed completely with her and with what the disciples said at the time, “this is a hard saying. Who can accept it?” In fact, it was such a hard saying, then as it is now, that disciples left Jesus over his teaching. When Jesus looks at the twelve, he asks, “are you going to leave?” And Peter gives his magnificent response, “Lord, where else would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

This passage is deep. And after reading it many times I began longing to have communion every week at church. And the few times we would have communion, I began noticing much closer what the pastor would say. Over and over, I would hear Pastors soften the shocking side of Jesus’s words. They would say things like “this is a symbol” or “this represents” or a variety of other words to water-down Christ’s teaching and his words as recorded in scripture! I came to the point where I wanted to shout from my seats, “this is!” and not hear “this symbolizes.” I would start to get very uncomfortable during communion because the pastors would soften Christ’s own words, which felt so wrong to me. I always wanted to be the like disciples who wrestled with Christ’s words and still stayed close to him, not hear his words and walk away. But this watering down of Christ’s own words happened in all sorts of Protestant churches (though I didn’t know at this point the difference between Catholic and Protestant). I would go to Lutheran churches and Presbyterian and Pentecostal and even churches so young that they didn’t even have a name but were called “non-denominational,” or churches that were trendy and hip and had cool names like Truth Point or Christ Fellowship, and not once did I hear any one of them say “this is my body.” They all watered-down Christ’s words. And that didn’t seem right to me. And I wasn’t willing to start a new church to fix that error. That would only bring more division, not unity.

And at some point, during all this I entered RCIA (Rites of Christian Initiation) because I was interested in understanding what Catholics believe. At first, I really was just looking to understand the faith of my grandparents that had recently passed away. But as I heard the Catholic side of the story and their insights on Christ, I realized, I should probably go to a mass and see what it’s like. In hindsight, it’s weird to me that I hadn’t gone to mass before joining RCIA, that I enrolled in the class first because I was curious to their beliefs. I guess God’s timing is his own. But I was thirsty to hear those words, “this is my body” and I didn’t know that it was those words I was thirsty for, I was just thirsty. Like a deer pants for streams of water, I panted to hear the word in its fullness.

And guess what, there it was in the Catholic mass! I can’t convey in words how relieved and amazed and in awe I felt at that first mass. I happened to go during a busy hour, and the church was filled, and when everyone got up and spoke the creed I felt like I was in the midst of saints as the roar of faith bellowed out from their bellies for all the world to hear. I absolutely loved it! And still do, to this day.

But even more amazingly, it was soon thereafter that I heard the priest say those miraculous words of scripture, “this is my body, given for you.” And a few moments later he said, “this is the cup of the new covenant, poured out for you, for many, for the forgiveness of sins,” I couldn’t believe it! I was hearing Christ’s own words and not some watered-down version of what he said and did that awesome night two thousand years ago. Christ’s words have been kept whole in the Catholic church, undiluted and unchanged from the record of scripture for nearly two thousand years!

On that day, I realized I had found my home. There were still things to wrestle with and understand, but I finally had found a church that didn’t water down Christ’s words but preserved them for us as they heard them two thousand years ago. And not only preserved them for us, but offer us something more than words, they offer us our daily bread, day after day, and let us come to Christ and receive him – body, soul, blood and divinity. Truly, God is with us. Our Immanuel is Jesus.

God with Us

“…the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,’ which means ‘God with us.’” – St. Matthew’s Gospel

Our faith is like no other, for what other nation or people or religion has its gods so close to them? We believe some miraculous things as Christians. The fact that God took on human flesh is unfathomable. The Christ did not view divinity as something to be grasped but humbled himself and took on flesh and was obedient even unto the point of death – that’s crazy! And yet it is true. And it was revealed to us. And it’s the story we must pass on and share with others and teach our children. As Saint Paul says, “we are stewards of the mysteries of God,” especially the good news of God’s love. And there is no other love like the love of God. It is stronger than death, fiercer than sin, more powerful than Satan. For nothing will separate us from the love of God. Truly, God is with us.

What’s amazing to me is that Apostolic Christians (Catholics and Orthodox) go even further in faith than Protestant Christians. Protestants stumble over the stumbling block of the eucharist, of God’s presence with us, a presence that is available bodily to this day. All Christians believe God dwelt among us and was made present in the womb of Mary. He walked the earth for 33 years and dwelt among us. Apostolic Christians like Catholics also believe that God is made present in the hands of priests during the mass and dwells among us to this day! God not only entrusted himself to a virgin in Nazareth, but also to priests and laity all over the world. Yes, Catholics believe God not only dwelt in Mary’s womb in Israel, but dwells among us on this earth to this day. And that is a special revelation and mystery that Catholics have maintained for two thousand years, since the time of the Last Supper. “God with us” is not only for believers who lived two thousand years ago in a special time and place, but for all believers who live anywhere and everywhere. All we need are fathers in the faith, priests with words of consecration to say their prayers over bread and wine, like Melchizedek. In the Lord’s supper, Apostolic Christians celebrate “God with us” in a unique way. We celebrate the Lord’s supper every time we gather and proclaim his death and resurrection. At every mass, we celebrate and partake in the Lord’s supper! This wasn’t a singular moment long forgotten, but a moment we enter into and live every day. Amen, amen, amen, every mass is Christ-mass, every day can be Christmas!

Truly, truly, I say unto you, God is with us!

the Lord’s Supper

“When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. He said to them, ‘I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer, for, I tell you, I shall not eat it until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God.’ Then he took a cup, gave thanks, and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; for I tell you from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.’ Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, ‘this is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.’ And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.’” – Gospel of Saint Luke

Christ came to give us a new covenant. Throughout history, God has made important covenants with heroes of the faith like Abraham, Moses and David that hold important promises for God’s people. In Saint Luke’s account of the Lord’s Supper, we hear that Christ was earnestly desiring to share this Passover with them, his last supper before his passion. The Passover Christ was celebrating with his disciples was a celebration of their deliverance from tyranny, slavery, and death and the start of their new life as a free people in a promised land flowing with milk and honey.

After the Passover, the Jews were baptized in the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s army was conquered and destroyed, and the sons of Israel were given the Law as they waited to inherit the promised land, itself a fulfillment of promises made hundreds of years earlier to their forefather Abraham. This was certainly a great celebration, similar to our own 4th of July, and yet our 4th is nowhere near so grand. For ours is a celebration of a new nation, theirs is not only a new nation but also a fulfillment of promises to their forefathers. When the Ancient Jews went into the Promised land, they had their instruction, their teachings, their commandments. They were a new nation under God. When our forefathers crossed the Atlantic and fought a long war for freedom, we did so with the stories of the Jews ringing in our ears as we hoped to become like them, a new nation under God. The Passover was not simply an event of liberation for ancient Jews, it’s a model for liberation for all Christians.

In the Passover, Christ takes this traditional Jewish meal, a meal that has been celebrated for over a thousand years, and makes it about himself. He’s either an egomaniac, or possibly, the greatest man to ever live. He’s either the biggest narcissist to walk the earth, or he’s transforming something old into something entirely new. There is no middle way, he is one or the other. And if he is transforming something old into something new, he’s not abolishing the old, but making it radiate in a new way, even more glorious than before. He’s not doing away with but enhancing. He’s not destroying but creating anew. “While the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

The original Passover of the Jews was meant to be a shadow of the true Passover of the Christians. Saint John the Baptist saw this early on when he sees Jesus and testifies, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Saint John saw something spectacular, he saw that the old covenant hid the new covenant. He saw that the old covenant pointed to greater realities. And he saw the new covenant revealed the true and deeper meaning of the old. The old was just a shadow of the greater things to come in the new. Christ came to free us from the tyranny of sin and death, and as we eat his flesh and drink his blood, we are made new in Christ. With Christ’s Passover, Christians can be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Spirit; sin and death are no longer undefeated tyrants but destroyed by the light of the gospel; and death becomes only a rite of passage for Christians who inherit the heavenly and eternal glories of God as co-heirs with Christ. Jesus reveals to us the deeper reality of the Old Exodus, it was simply a shadow and sign pointing to the New Exodus, one that’s inaugurated during that Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples. The new covenant was inaugurated by that Passover that he long desired to share with his apostles, that Passover that he was earnestly looking forward to celebrating. This Last Supper is the fulfillment of the old covenant and the inauguration of the new and better and eternal covenant, the better covenant promised by the Prophets and fulfilled fully and uniquely in Christ.

One thing about God’s covenants, they are inaugurated with sacrifice and end with a communion meal. When we survey the old testament scriptures, we see that God entered into covenants with various of our spiritual forefathers, and with each covenant came sacrifice and special promises. With Adam and Eve, God promised that there would be a son in enmity with Satan who would one day prove victorious over sin and death. He sacrificed animals and provided their skins to cover their nakedness. Flowers and leaves were not enough to cover the shame of our sins, a sacrifice was needed. Unfortunately, this covenant ended with Adam and Eve being barred from eating of the tree of life lest they live forever in that sinful state. They need to be filled with grace to take hold of eternity. The new Revelation to the churches is we have the right to eat from the tree of life that is in the garden of God. As Christ taught, we eat the living bread come down from heaven. We have our new manna.

Likewise, the Mosaic covenant began with a Passover meal that led to the giving of the law and the daily manna for the people of God. The new and eternal covenant began with a Passover meal that led to the giving of the Spirit and the supernatural daily bread – the eucharist! – for the people of God. With Christ, we have “some of the hidden manna” that goes to the victors in Christ. And in this, we start to see the transformation of the old covenant into the new, of the Passover to the Last Supper, of the nation of God to the people of God, of Israel to the church. And as Christians, we celebrate the greater things of the New Covenant.

And what I love about the Catholic church in comparison to Protestant churches is that the Catholic church makes the celebration of the new and eternal covenant in the Lord’s Supper a key aspect of our every gathering, of our every mass, of our every day. At every mass we celebrate communion as we gather for supper of the lamb and hear “Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my body, which will be given for you… take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my blood, the blood of the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me. The mystery of faith.”

Catholics live in the constant memory of the new covenant. We always celebrate the eternal covenant. We eat of the flesh of Christ and drink his blood and live in the new and everlasting covenant. And that’s no small matter. Though we may treat it as such, it’s a big deal, the biggest deal. Words cannot begin to convey the beauty and grandeur of this mystery of faith. God was made flesh and dwelt among us. And gave his body for us, his flesh and blood. He was set, as the Prophet foretold, “as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations.” Let us have faith to live fully in the new and eternal covenant, and not forsake intimacy with our savior, the lover of our souls.

New Covenant

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” – Jesus of Nazareth, Sermon on the Mount

Could the old covenant be better than the new covenant in any way? By no means! That’s not how God does things. He saves the good wine for the end of the wedding, he gives us the best religion for the end times, he gives us the savior as the last of the prophets. This is one of the fundamental mistakes that the religion of Islam makes, for how could they have a lesser prophet be the last prophet? The Prophet who rises from the dead surely is greater than one who doesn’t. And so, once the Son of God comes to the earth and rises from the dead, we need only testify to his resurrection rather than hear a lesser prophet’s newer revelation. For what greater miracle is there than resurrection?! Absolutely everything of the old covenants with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David was made better with the new covenant of Jesus.

Jesus came not to abolish the old, but to fulfill it. And as he fulfills it, he transforms the culture, traditions, and institutions of the people of Israel into the beautiful life of the church and our sacraments. The practices of the old religion find their truest expression in the practices of the new religion. And for me, this is a huge difference between Catholic and Protestant churches, this understanding of how the old religion finds its fulfillment in the Catholic Christian way of life. The Protestant way of life still yearns for more, let me explain how.

Even as an evangelical Protestant I found church service unsatisfying. I loved bible study, but rarely did I ever love church. It felt like what mattered for church was either the music or the sermons, it felt very centered on the talents of men and women. If you had a bad band, it was difficult to enjoy church. If you had a bad preacher, church felt interminably long! The whole of Protestant churches felt centered on the talents of individual men and women. It felt not Christ-centered but man-centered. And I don’t feel that way about the mass. In fact, if there’s a bad priest with a bad homily, it’s such a small part of the service that I have so many other great things to reflect and experience, including sharing the body of Christ with his bride. But a bad pastor with a bad sermon, that’s almost everything in a Protestant service. Usually music leads into it, but the main event is the pastor’s sermon. With the Catholic mass, the main event is the body and blood of our risen savior. And there are other great things about the mass that I also love.

For one, to quote Scott Hahn, “the mass is the most biblically saturated hour on earth.” The mass starts with a hymn and the procession of the cross, the word of God, and the ministers of the Lord’s table. Quickly we get into prayers and songs and we confess our sins. Next, except during lent, we sing the Gloria, the song angels sang with shepherds at our savior’s birth in Bethlehem, and from there, we have a variety of readings from sacred scripture. At any weekend mass, we’ll hear a reading from the old testament, sing a psalm, and hear a new testament reading as well as a gospel reading. Over and over again, I’m amazed at the organization of the readings and the breadth of how deep it hits on various themes and stories from scripture throughout the year. The mass is so deep; I think the hard thing is to recognize how deep in scripture it is – there is no hour on earth like it! And then we have the homily, where a good priest has opportunity to explain the scriptures and go deeper into how they might impact us. But this is only after we’ve heard the word directly for ourselves. We hear the priest’s interpretation, but we get the unfiltered word. I rarely have ever seen a Protestant service give the unfiltered word to their people. In fact, I usually see pastors pick and choose their sermons, and even pick and choose their readings, if they even have them. Often times, Protestant services forego the word of God all together. There is no such opportunity for that to happen in a Catholic church, because our whole mass is centered on the Word of God – first the reading of the sacred scriptures, and second, and more importantly, the celebration of the eucharist, a participation in the new and eternal covenant. Once the priest shares the homily, we recite the creed and move into the prayers of the faithful and the prayers that help us prepare for celebrating the wedding feast of the lamb. And this includes my most favorite part, when the priest holds up the host and says “behold, the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” just like Saint John the Baptist exclaimed when he saw Jesus. Truly, the mass is the most amazing hour on earth. And to think Christians have been enjoying the liturgy for nearly two thousand years now is almost beyond belief! God is good! And we have testimony from the earliest Christians about what the mass was like, for example Justin Martyr’s testimony, and it is similar to today’s mass, again, thousands of years later. It is awe-inspiring to be in communion with the saints of the past and present, across seas and centuries, and be together as one body. There is nothing else like it. It is heaven on earth. Truly, the kingdom of heaven is among you, near you.

But that’s only the beginning. From the mass, we can radiate out into the world. Strengthened by our spiritual food, strengthened by the word of God, we go out into the world fulfilling our mission and purpose. Sadly, I think, so few of us Catholics understand the gift of God we have in the mass, that we take it for granted. Much like the people of Christ’s time took for granted that God became man and dwelt among us, nowadays we take for granted that God comes to us in the appearance of bread and wine and dwells among us to this day. Our lack of understanding needs to be remedied, but the Catholic foundation is the better foundation to build on. It is a shame that we Catholics understand so little of the greatness of our foundation and take our cornerstone for granted. For how can we expect Protestants to cherish or appreciate or learn about Jesus in the eucharist if we don’t cherish and appreciate our own liturgy for ourselves? For who but a Catholic could instruct our Protestant brothers and sisters about the deeper mysteries of the Christian faith and religion?

But more than just the church service, I find lots of things missing in the theology of Protestantism. For it seems like Protestants stop at the explicit things, and don’t dive deeper into the implicit aspects of our faith. In hindsight, it’s natural, because the Protestant church was built off sacred texts, while the Catholic church was built on the apostles (that is people, not writings). But not only do I find Catholics have a richer understanding of Eucharistic aspects of the faith like the Passover lamb, the hidden manna, the living bread, the daily bread; but there’s also a continuity in how the old testament was a sign and shadow of deeper things like the temple, the tabernacle, the cornerstone, the son of Man, the new Eve, the ark of the covenant, the son of Abraham, the son of David, the perfect priesthood, the perfect high priest, the kingship, the prophetic office, the forgiveness of sins, the celebration of life, the conquering of death, the many feasts and solemnities, the pilgrimages, the new law, the holy spirit, the pope, the prime minister, the queen mother, the new testament, the sacred tradition, the sacraments, the twelve apostles, the better Solomon, the better Jonah, the fresher wineskins, the pearl of the kingdom, and so on and so on and so on. You get the point.

Time fails me now to tackle each one of them now, but simply studying the eucharist and our Queen Mother Mary was enough to convince me in faith and truth and by reason that the Catholic religion is much richer, more vibrant, and deeply satisfying…it’s the only church I ever want to be a part of, and the celebration of the mass is where I want to be. The Catholic religion is the only faith that is willing to go deeper and deeper into the mysteries of God in the pursuit of the whole truth and the fullness thereof.

Ultimately, the old covenants and traditions find their better version in relationship to Christ. And so, we need a religion that doesn’t strip away the old practices, but understands how each of these are transformed in the new. Specifically, how they are fulfilled and then transformed (rather than abolished). Otherwise, we have a lesser religion than the old one, and that can never be. And while I find Protestant religions to be better than most, for at least they have Christ and others do not. But they also abolished many things rather than transform. And there is room for growth because, ultimately, they lack the eucharist and therefore the fullness of the new covenant. Yes, Catholics have the eucharist, and Protestants do not. We have Christ bodily. And more, Catholics have so much more, including the sacraments, the Queen Mother, and a deeper experience of our bridegroom! God bless the one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church! God bless the bride of Christ!

Bridegroom

“And this is the testimony of John… he saw Jesus coming toward him and said ‘Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world… Behold, the lamb of God… you yourselves can testify that I said I am not the Messiah, but that I was sent before him. The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The best man who stands and listens for him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. So, this joy of mine has been made complete. He must increase, I must decrease.” – Saint John’s Gospel

The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. When questioned why the Pharisees and the disciples of John fast and offer prayers but Christ’s followers eat and drink, Jesus answered, “can you make the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, and when the bridegroom is taken away from them, then they will fast in those days.” And in the days leading up to the Last Supper, Jesus shared a few parables about the kingdom of heaven and the end times, one of which included the parable about the 10 virgins with lamps who went out to meet the bridegroom. The 5 wise ones had oil and were ready when the bridegroom came, and they went into the wedding feast with the bridegroom. The foolish virgins where locked out for they had to run off and find oil and when they returned the bridegroom was inside and the door was locked. It was too late. "They knew neither the day nor the hour," nor the need to be ready at every moment. And while Jesus shared this parable privately with the disciples, a little earlier he had shared publicly the parable of the marriage feast of the king’s son. In that parable, he reckoned that the kingdom of heaven was like the wedding feast the king threw for his son. The one sent from heaven used a wedding feast for a king’s son as a way to try and describe heaven. Stories about wedding feasts and bridegrooms abound in Jesus’s teachings.

When we consider that Christ came on a mission from the Father, it makes sense that he would be the one to describe heaven to us. For "even though he was in the form of God, he did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped, but instead humbled himself and came in human likeness and was found in human appearance." What’s surprising, especially to those of us not intimate with Jewish culture and messianic expectations, is how often these parables are about wedding feasts and bridegrooms. These testimonies, not only from stories told by Jesus but witness borne by others like Saint John the Baptist, all make clear that Jesus is the bridegroom. And yes, heaven just might be best described as a wedding feast.

These are not throwaway images, but reveal in a deeper way who Christ is. “He is the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” He is also the bridegroom because “the one who has the bride is the bridegroom.” And when we begin to pull together the various images of Jesus, including the ones he uses to describe himself in John’s gospel, whether “I am the bread of life” or “I am the light of the world” or “I am the gate” or the very God-like “I am the good shepherd” or “I am the resurrection and the life” or “I am the way and the truth and the life, none come to the father but through me” or “I am the true vine,” we have a variety of key images that Jesus uses to describe himself. But John’s testimony is among the ones of most importance, as he is the long awaited prophet sent to prepare the way to the lord, and he tells us “the one who has the bride is the bridegroom; the best man who stands and listens to him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice…he must increase, I must decrease.” Jesus is the bridegroom. He must increase, we must decrease.

The images of earth pale in comparison to the grandeur of heaven. But it’s the only thing we have to try and describe what heaven is like. The Prophets had to explain heavenly mysteries in earthly languages, with earthly symbols and stories and figures of speech. The Prophets had to explain in terms we could understand, with the symbols and stories and language we would know. And the Prophets told us about a Bridegroom. Again, Jesus frequently used stories about wedding feasts and bridegrooms to describe heaven, that our relationship with God is likened not only to fatherly love for his children but also spousal love for his bride. There is no god like our God. There is no groom like our bridegroom.

This is not a new revelation, but the fulfillment of promises given long ago. For our God foretold these things, announced them long before they came to pass. We need only look at Isaiah as one example of many. Let us consider, when we hear the famous passage in Isaiah about the suffering servant, the one who was “spurned and avoided by men, a man of suffering, knowing pain…and we held him in no esteem…that bore our sufferings…was cut off from the land of the living, struck for the sins of his people… the servant, the just one, shall justify the many, their iniquity he shall bear,” how quickly this prophecy also turns to God’s joyous wedding song, “raise a glad cry…for your husband is your Maker, the LORD of hosts is his name, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, called God of all the earth.” They are separated only by a few lines in Isaiah. We move from the suffering servant to the husband. This God of all the earth who justifies the many is also our husband. Mysteries like God being born of a virgin or Christ coming from heaven are unfathomable, and yet, there are more unfathomable mysteries foretold and fulfilled in Christ alone. Yes, He came down from heaven to wed his people. And what God has joined together, let not man tear asunder.

And so, between Saint John the Baptist’s witness and Christ’s testimony, we come to the clear understanding that Christ is the bridegroom the people of Israel had been waiting for; he is the long-awaited son of David and bridegroom written about in the Song of Songs, the lover of our souls. As much as the eucharist and new covenant are remarkable gifts from God, as much as our New Passover at the Last Supper accomplished a New Exodus in Jerusalem, the city of the Great King, another unfathomable and great mystery is that these promises are wrapped in fulfillment in one person, our bridegroom. Not only is God’s dwelling with the human race, but he dwells in the temple of our bodies. And God’s bride is the people of God. The sons and daughters of our heavenly Father become the spouse of his Son. The church is the bride of Christ, for our maker is our husband, our savior is the lover of our souls, and just like every good fairytale, ours too ends with a wedding. Yes, God’s story ends with a wedding, a wedding which is not only our happily-ever after but also our new beginning, the wedding feast of the lamb.

Wedding Feast

“Then I heard something like the sound of a great multitude or the sound of rushing water or mighty peals of thunder, as they said, ‘Alleluia! The Lord has established his reign, God, the almighty. Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory. For the wedding day of the Lamb has come, his bride has made herself ready. She was allowed to wear a bright, clean linen garment.’ (The linen represents the righteous deeds of the holy ones). Then the angel said to me, ‘Write this: Blessed are those who have been called to the wedding feast of the lamb.’” – Book of Revelation

The history of the Israelites is fascinating. As St. Paul says, “theirs the adoption; theirs the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, the promises; theirs the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, is the Messiah.” And one of the promises according to the flesh is the promise to King David about his son. And we’re not talking only about the son who would reign as king and die hanging from a tree, pierced in his side, but also the other son, the son who would build the temple and reign forever.

Now, every civilization tells time in relation to the great men and dynasties they created. And here we are, the whole world, telling time relative to Christ, not only the son of David, but also the son of God. And this son of God was crowned, crucified and charged “King of the Jews” by the Roman authorities of his time. So, when Jesus rises from the dead three days after being crowned and proclaimed king by the Romans, we see even in these small details God keeps his promises. No promise goes unfulfilled as the Almighty leaves his fingerprints on the world. And his fingerprints are this – his son reigns as king of the Jews and the king of kings. We even tell time by his birth, two thousand twenty years later.

As discussed in the last section, the son of God is not only son of David, and lamb of God, but he is also the bridegroom. And the bridegroom must have a bride. And that means there’s a wedding. Yes, from the perspective of an ancient Jew, the son of David is king, and this king must have a kingdom, a temple, a queen mother, ministers and a prime minister, a bride and a wedding, among many, many other cultural traditions. Truly, today we are living in the time of fulfillment, where the promises of God have come true and the Lord has established his reign. As we discussed, the law was fulfilled and transformed, from the old covenant to the new covenant. So, when the new covenant scriptures say, “The wedding day of the Lamb has come. Blessed are those called to the wedding feast of the lamb.” I had a question that kept me searching for years. When, exactly, was Christ’s wedding? This question consumed my mind.

Saint Paul makes abundantly clear that Jesus and his church are in a spousal relationship. To the Ephesians he writes, “So also husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. ‘For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.” So, the Pauline epistles mention Christ as husband, but when we look at passages from the gospels, they often mention Christ not as husband but bridegroom. Not as having celebrated the wedding feast but in preparation of it. Again, when did the wedding happen? For the Song of Songs, which closes the Hebrew canon, ends in hopeful expectation of a bridegroom. When did the transition from groom to spouse happen?

At Christ’s passion. Christ’s wedding was his passion on the cross. This aspect of Christ our bridegroom is supremely fascinating in many ways. We will only consider two. First, as mentioned, the terminology prior to Christ’s passion is bridegroom terminology. His time of ministry is the courting period as well as the bachelor party, if we were to speak in today’s slang terms. But after his passion, Christ is referred to as husband. This was foretold in Isaiah, if we notice the intricacy of Isaiah’s servant songs. For in Isaiah 53 (remembering chapter divisions were added thousands of years after Isaiah’s prophecies were first written), we have the story of the suffering servant who “surrendered himself to death, was counted among the transgressors, bore the sins of many, and interceded for the transgressors.” This is immediately followed by “raise a glad cry,” like a wedding shout, and the proclamation “for your husband is your Maker, the Lord of hosts is his name, Your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” Isaiah prophesied many things of Christ, including him as a suffering servant and as a husband. Christ who bore our sins unto death is husband to his church. Christ has taken his vows; with his blood he bought his bride. We now must take our vows, if we are to be married. And blessed are those called to the wedding feast of the lamb.

Yes, when Christ resurrects from the dead and offers his flesh and blood for us, it is in fact a wedding feast. The bridegroom has provided the meal and drinks. Christ’s wedding day is celebrated constantly and continually. And for those who make the confession and become Catholic, we are not only sons and daughters of the Father but also spouse to Christ our lover. For our purposes here, in discerning differences between Catholic and Protestant religions, we should note that for Christians, this aspect of who Christ is, lends itself to two different approaches to church life. We are either engaged to Christ our fiancé (like Protestants) or married to Christ our husband (like Catholics). And I think we have to be very careful with these two approaches.

As a Protestant, I wanted to take the lamb’s wedding feast as seriously as Catholics do. But the only way to do that was to become Catholic. And this is a fearful issue for Protestants to consider. Because if Christ meant what he said about his flesh being the living bread and his blood being the new covenant, and if he meant what he said about being the living bread and to drink the cup of his blood, then we have to take the liturgy of the mass seriously and we have to see it for what it is – the wedding feast of the lamb. The sacred scriptures record angels proclaiming, “blessed are those called to the wedding feast of the lamb.” Many are called, but few are chosen. As a Protestant, I wanted to strive to be the chosen and over time, I realized that meant becoming Catholic. There were too many wonderful promises given to the Catholics, including the promise to live life on earth as it is in heaven.

My fear was that in Protestant theology the bridegroom has gone off to prepare a house and that when he returns, the marriage will happen. But the deeper realities of what’s happening at the mass, coupled with the stories Christ himself spoke, we are invited to the wedding supper of the lamb, and it’s happening at every mass in every land on every day across our great planet. And I fear that while Protestants are awaiting his return, they do not see that by their own will they keep themselves from the mass and thus keep themselves from the wedding feast of the lamb. I feared I was more like the 5 unwise virgins without enough oil who locked themselves out of the wedding feast. When they knock on the door, the bridegroom responds, “Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.”

And this is hard for us to understand, especially in our culture where the wedding feast is only one day. But I think ancient and other cultures had it better, closer to how God desired it, that the wedding feast lasts days if not weeks. And for us, those who are Catholic, the wedding feast lasts our entire lifetime. We are called to the wedding feast of the lamb, let us hear and heed the call. For every mass is an opportunity to participate in the wedding feast, to receive our lord and savior and relive those promises we made to him and, most importantly, remember the promises he made to use and the depths to which he keeps them. For truly, Christ has given us the good wine now. And we are only living in the beginning of his signs as he reveals his glory to us in the mass. For in the mass, our faith grows, and we learn to walk with him and believe in him – our lord and God and husband.

Yes, Catholics live in a spousal marriage with our God, we have taken our vows and like a bride receives her husband, we receive our Lord at the mass – body, blood, soul and divinity. “For this reason, a man shall leave father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.” And I hope this makes sense, for I know I myself do not grasp the depths of this mystery. I barely tread on the surface. But our life on earth is our honeymoon, our opportunity to enjoy the first fruits of a divine and everlasting love. Protestants may be in process of being prepared for marriage, but Catholics are living in the marriage. I’d rather be married than engaged. And when I chose to become Catholic, I was very aware that I didn’t want to watch the wedding feast anymore, I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to be married, not engaged, for a spouse knows more than a fiancé ever could. For they have shared sacred life together. And as Revelation closes, we likewise say, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb.”

Next: Part 2 | Catholic

“But it is one thing to conclude that Catholicism is good and another to conclude that it is right. It is one thing to conclude that it is right and another to conclude that it is always right.”
 – G.K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion