who alone does wonderful deeds.
Blessed be his glorious name forever;
may all the earth be filled with the Lord's glory.
Amen and amen.” Psalm 72:18-19
Shakespeare. Rembrandt. Mozart. Michaelangelo. How many volumes have been spent exploring the genius, flawless detail, and artistic mastery these and so many others have shared with the world? And it is as nothing. Man's desire and affection for the arts point to our longing for our union with our Creator, and if we can be moved by the tender, sorrowful aching of Mary in the Pietà, then it is a wonder we don't drop dead just from trying to grasp the mind-blowing intricacies that litter His work. The physical universe in which we live, of course, unless it happened by accident, could not have been designed by anything but a divine Being. Of particular beauty, especially lately for me, is Scripture.
One of my favorite aspects of the Church is the depth and unity of its understanding. Even though this comes as no surprise—the Church, after all, brings us to truth, which, by definition, is unity—I am continually floored by the utter interconnectedness of it all. What, for instance, could possibly be the connection between marriage and the Passover in Exodus? (The answer is below.) The more I realize just how One our eternal destination is (including all the imperfections that lead to it), certainly it becomes apparent how easy it could be to disbelieve if a single piece is missing. But it's not. He put it all in there, just the way it needs to be. Every wonderful deed and creation points to God, and so no matter how deeply and richly we understand, we've only just begun.
I saw Christopher West today, giving a presentation on the Theology of the Body, an understanding of human sexuality and how it points to the Eucharist, which gives us our eternal life. I sat in awe for over two hours just thinking, “This is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard.” I've been saying that a lot lately. To sum up, in part, what I got from the night:
At the very beginning of the bible, “God created man in His image, in the divine image He created him; male and female, he created them” and “out of 'her man' this one has been taken. That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two become one body” (Gen 1:27, 2:23-24). At the very end of the bible, the Church is presented as the wife of the Lamb (Rev 21:10). The imagery of marriage is used extensively, most notably here, as bookends, at Jesus' first miracle in Cana, in the Song of Songs (which is pretty much smack dab in the middle of the bible), and in several parables. Why is marriage—rightly understood—so fundamental to our salvation?
John's gospel (in which we see the miracle at the wedding at Cana) offers many clues. “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him” (John 14:20-21). Sounds very similar to me to this idea of becoming one flesh. It gets much better. I mentioned before that a child express love most perfectly in obedience, trust in his parent's wisdom. When we obey God's commands, we give up our imperfect desires to unite ourselves fully with Him; and just in case we missed it, He sums it very clearly: “I have told you this so that my joy might be in you and your joy might be complete. This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has love greater than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends” (John 15:11-13). So Jesus wants us to love Him by giving our life up to Him (see Matt 16:24), that we might live in him. Marriage on earth, then, is not an end; it is just a hint, a tiny foretaste of the joy that awaits us in the new Jerusalem: a marriage to Christ that gives eternal life.
That brings us to the other aspect of marriage: life. Adam and Eve were told to be fruitful and multiply. We, united to Christ in His resurrection, live forever. The Trinity, even, is model of marriage (actually, it's the other way around): the Father and Son are so united in love that their love is another Person, the Holy Spirit. Many wonder why the Catholic Church condemns contraception. There are plenty of practical reasons, but they all stem from one truth, that any union that is not open to the creation of life, to a participation in the divine image in which we were created, cannot rightly be called a marriage. In short, marriage is our expression of divine love. It is a love which is unconditional, sacrificial, obedient, and life-giving; it is true love.
How does that relate to the Passover? Because the Passover is a type of the Eucharist, which is the heart and soul of Christian life, the daily living of unconditional, sacrificial, obedient, life-giving love. In Exodus, God frees the Israelites from slavery (1) to the Egyptians into the promised land (2). During the Passover ritual, they slay a lamb without blemish (3), and every household is saved by the blood of the lamb (4) on the doorpost. (Ex 12:5,7). Anyone outside the community (5) may not partake, everyone in the household must eat the flesh of the same lamb (6), the bread of the feast is unleavened (7), the lamb's bones must remain unbroken (8), and it was to be celebrated as a perpetual institution (9). Jesus is the “Lamb of God, who takes away the sins (1) of the world (John 1:29). During the Passover feast at the Last Supper, Jesus took the unleavened bread (7) and said “Take and eat; this is my body” (6) (Matt 26:26). And with the wine, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood (4) of the covenant” (Matt 26:27-28). “Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance (9) of me” (1 Cor 11:25). Paul says that “anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body (5), eats and drinks judgment on himself” (1 Cor 11:29). I repeat, He did this during the Passover Feast. This Lamb of God was unblemished (3) (Heb 9:14) and not one of His bones was broken (8) (John 19:36). In Christ, we come to the Father (14:6), and He shows us to the new Jerusalem (2) (Rev 22:9-10).
John 6 is the pinnacle of the imagery of the Eucharist as marriage.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.”
“Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not gave life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me. This the bread that came down from heaven. Unlike your ancestors, who ate and still died, whoever eats this bread will live forever.” (John 6:47-51.53-58)
On the cross, we see the physical demonstration of His unconditional, sacrificial, obedient love. In the Passover feast, which He has hinted at here, we are assured that it is life-giving. But how is a marriage consummated? When the two become one flesh. In the Eucharist, we physically consume the Body of Christ. (It gives a whole new meaning to, “You are what you eat,” doesn't it?) He literally becomes one flesh with ours. We have the consummation of the marriage of the Lamb to His bride, the Church. It's so simple, so beautiful, so profound, yet so unimaginable and unimaginably deep. And it's just a glimmer of what awaits us in heaven.
Mother of God,
You experienced a union with Christ unlike any other in all creation. You are the masterpiece of God's wonderful deeds. Lead us to your Son, that we may partake of the wedding feast in the new Jerusalem.
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