Christ as Husband of Church: Pope Benedict XVI

Today in the Pope Paul VI Audience Hall the Holy Father gave a general audience where he said this:

Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Continuing our catechesis on Saint Paul, we turn to the “twin” letters: Colossians and Ephesians. Similar in language, they are unique in developing the theme of Christ as “head” – kephalé – not only of the Church, but also of the entire universe. These letters assure us that Christ is above any hostile earthly power. Christ alone “loved us and gave himself up for us” (Eph 5:2), so that if we remain close to him, we need not fear any adversity. It was God’s plan to “recapitulate” all things in Jesus “through whom all things were created”, so that “by the blood of his Cross” we might be reconciled to the Father. Christ’s headship also implies that, in a certain sense, he is greater than the Church in that his dominion extends beyond her boundaries, and that the Church, rather than the entire cosmos, is referred to as the Body of Christ. These letters are also notable for the spousal image they use to describe how Christ has “won” his bride – the Church – by giving his life for her (cf. Eph 5:25). What greater sign of love could there be than this? Christ thus desires that we grow more beautiful each day through irreproachable moral conduct, “without wrinkle or defect” (Eph 5:27). By living uprightly and justly, may we bear witness to the nuptial union which has already taken place in Christ as we await its fulfilment in the wedding feast to come.

What I want to highlight here is that Jesus' bride is the Church and that each of us awaits the wedding feast to come when we get to heaven. Each of us is to become more beautiful as a bride as we strive to always do what is right and grow increasingly morally perfect. Christ is our husband, and the more we give ourselves entirely to Him, the more we look like Him and the more He bears good fruit in us by our good actions.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

Out of Our Heart Flows Rivers of Living Waters

The readings for Mass today (yesterday, at this time of night) were wonderful. The first reading was Jeremiah 2: 1-3, 7-8 and 10-11; here it is, and notice the marital analogy, the fruit language, and the mention of water:

“This word of the LORD came to me: 
Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear! 

I remember the devotion of your youth, 
how you loved me as a bride, 
Following me in the desert,
 in a land unsown. 
Sacred to the LORD was Israel, 
the first fruits of his harvest;
 Should any presume to partake of them, 
evil would befall them, says the LORD. 

When I brought you into the garden land 
to eat its goodly fruits, 
You entered and defiled my land,
 you made my heritage loathsome. 
The priests asked not, 
“Where is the LORD?”
 Those who dealt with the law knew me not:
 the shepherds rebelled against me.
 The prophets prophesied by Baal,
 and went after useless idols.

 Be amazed at this, O heavens,
 and shudder with sheer horror, says the LORD. 
Two evils have my people done:
 they have forsaken me, the source of living waters; 
They have dug themselves cisterns,
 broken cisterns, that hold no water.”

At first, Jerusalem loved God as a bride loves her husband, and Israel was the first fruits of God’s harvest. God’s people went after other gods; they abandoned the true God who is the “source of living waters.” Our hearts should be turned toward the source of life and living waters and not be consumed with what is not God. Here, the heart, as the source of love, and water are connected.

The Responsorial Psalm was 36: 6-11, and again notice the emphasis on water and its connection with the heart:
R. (10a) With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.
 O LORD, your mercy reaches to heaven;
 your faithfulness, to the clouds.
 Your justice is like the mountains of God;
 your judgments, like the mighty deep.
 R. With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.
 How precious is your mercy, O God!
 The children of men take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
 They have their fill of the prime gifts of your house; 
from your delightful stream you give them to drink. 
R. With you is the fountain of life, O Lord. 
For with you is the fountain of life, 
and in your light we see light.
 Keep up your mercy toward your friends,
 your just defense of the upright of heart.
 R. With you is the fountain of life, O Lord.



God is the fountain of life who is abounding in mercy and justice. The water language is overflowing: flowing, mighty deep, delightful stream, drink, and fountain of life. The upright of heart are they who receive this overflowing mercy from God. Here the heart motif and the water motif are joined together.

The Gospel is from Matthew 13: 10-17, and the main word in this passage is heart. Everything else is built around the word “heart” which stands in the middle and makes sense of the whole. Here is the passage:



The disciples approached Jesus and said, 
“Why do you speak to the crowd in parables?”
 He said to them in reply, 
“Because knowledge of the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven 
has been granted to you, but to them it has not been granted.
 To anyone who has, more will be given and he will grow rich; 
from anyone who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
 This is why I speak to them in parables, because 
they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand. 
Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:

 You shall indeed hear but not understand, 
you shall indeed look but never see. 
Gross is the heart of this people, 
they will hardly hear with their ears,
 they have closed their eyes, 
lest they see with their eyes
 and hear with their ears 
and understand with their hearts and be converted 
and I heal them.

 “But blessed are your eyes, because they see,
 and your ears, because they hear. 
Amen, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people
 longed to see what you see but did not see it, 
and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” 


Why does Jesus speak in parables? Is it so everyone can understand more easily what He is saying? Jesus says that He speaks in so that some people will not understand Him. Why don’t they understand Him? It is because their heart is “gross.” Their heart is not sensitive as it should be; it ignores and doesn’t care about what is most important. They look and hear, but nothing is registering as significant or worthy of attention. They don’t care. They don’t want to see or hear. God is boring. The things of God don’t matter. They are there more out of curiosity or some ulterior motive but not because they really care. So the little they had is taken away: they understand nothing of Jesus’ message.

To see and understand and have Jesus heal us, our heart has to turn to Him and open up and want to see and understand what He is saying. If our heart loves, trusts and obeys Him, then we will able to perceive and understand the Gospel. Those who have faith, who have love, who do obey have what it takes. They have a responsive heart, and those with such a receptive heart will be given more faith, hope and love to better love, trust and obey. The good heart will become a very rich heart. Jesus is not speaking about material riches; rather, He is speaking about having abundant faith, hope and love. Those who turn away from God, who don’t need Him, who close their hearts to Him, are not able to receive the good gifts He desires to give us. The more we open up to Him, the more He is able to fill us with every good gift.

Tying the three readings together, when we are God’s bride and open ourselves to Him completely, He is able to fill us and make us rich in faith, hope and love. When our heart turns toward Him, we drink deeply from the fountain of life and goodness, we drink deeply of Him, and so we become fully alive. When our heart is in the right place, it is connected to God who is the “source of living waters.” When we are connected to the source, out of our heart flows rivers of living waters.


Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

Good Friday Office of Readings

From the Catecheses by Saint John Chrysostom, bishop (click on this entry's title to go to the entire office of readings)

The power of Christ's blood

If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish”, commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors”. If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.

If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.

“There flowed from his side water and blood”. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolised baptism and the holy eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit”, and from the holy eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.

Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.

That is the end of this passage from Saint John Chrysostom taken from the Liturgy of the Hours for Good Friday.

Jesus is the Passover Lamb who gives birth to the Church from the blood and water which flowed from His side and Sacred Heart after He died on the cross. The water symbolizes baptism and the blood symbolizes the Holy Eucharist, and these two sacraments give birth to the Catholic Church. Eve, the bride of Adam, was formed from our first father's side as he lay asleep; in like manner, the Catholic Church, the Bride of Christ, was formed from Jesus' side when He was in the sleep of death. As a mother feeds her baby with her own blood before birth and her milk after birth, so Jesus feeds His Church with the shedding of His own blood before her birth and His blood and water at her birth and daily after in Holy Communion. The Church is Christ's child, and it is also His bride; so we are made Children of God in the Church and we are called to complete union with Him in mystical marriage. As a husband provides for his bride and fills her with life so that she gives birth, so Jesus provides for you and me and fills us with His body and blood so that we have life and give birth to faith, hope and love in our hearts and deeds.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

"You Will be a Watered Garden"

On Friday there were some good scripture passages on which to comment. The first came from the responsorial psalm, Psalm 51: “For you are not pleased with sacrifices; should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it. My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.” God wants our hearts, and when we turn to Him, humble and seeking His help, He loves to come to our aid.

God is not pleased in animal sacrifices in themselves; the Israelites were worshipping fertility gods symbolized by bulls (calves) and goats, so God had them sacrifice their very gods. Killing and eating one’s gods does not make for happy gods. They had to sacrifice lambs because, insofar as they sinned, they were worshipping themselves. Thus, animal sacrifices were a good penitential act showing God that one wasn’t going to worship those false gods, but it didn’t mean that one couldn’t find some other false gods to worship. Animal sacrifice didn’t guarantee that one was loving and obeying the one true God. We show God we love Him when, humbly, we give Him our heart and our whole selves.

The second scripture passage was from Matthew 9:14-15: “The disciples of John approached Jesus and said, ‘Why do we and the Pharisees fast much, but your disciples do not fast?’ Jesus answered them, ‘Can the wedding guests mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast’.” Here, Jesus refers to Himself as the bridegroom. He is our husband. Part of my theory is that right from the beginning, God made us to be His spouse; when man and woman are made in the image and likeness of God in the very first chapter of Genesis, He is making us to be His bride. We were stolen by Satan in the garden, so God comes to earth to win back His wayward bride. The Catholic life is the life of a bride of Christ who receives His body and blood in the Eucharist to bear fruit for God.

Today, Saturday, also had some readings which resonate with my theory. The first reading is from Isaiah 58: 9-14: “Thus says the LORD: If you remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech; if you bestow your bread on the hungry and satisfy the afflicted; then light shall rise for you in the darkness, and the gloom shall become for you like midday; then the LORD will guide you always and give you plenty even on the parched land. He will renew your strength, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring whose water never fails. The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake, and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up; ‘Repairer of the breach,’ they shall call you, ‘Restorer of ruined homesteads.’ If you hold back your foot on the Sabbath from following your own pursuits on my holy day; if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the LORD’s holy day honorable; if you honor it by not following your ways, seeking your own interests, or speaking with malice then you shall delight in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; I will nourish you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

This passage consists of two parallel parts. They are both structured saying, if you do this good deed, then something good will happen to you. The good that will happen in the first half is that God will give plenty, renew your strength, and you will be like a watered garden and an ever flowing spring of water. The second half says that you will delight in the Lord and be nourished. The two rewards seem to be arranged in a chiasm that looks like this:
A God will give you strength and plenty
B You will be a watered garden and an ever flowing spring
B’ You will delight in the Lord
A’ You will be nourished by the Lord

What is most significant is what is in the middle. The two parallel middle parts are 1) being an ever flowing spring of water and 2) taking delight in God. They are the same thing, if my theory is correct. I say that the tree of life in Genesis two and three is both the river broken into four sections and the heart, the heart that loves, trusts and obeys God. Remember that Eden means delight, so here we have a garden and Eden. When our heart loves, trusts and obeys God, it delights in Him; when it delights in God, our hearts become the four-sectioned river or spring which always produces water and good fruit and the fulfillment of what Jesus said: “Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7: 38). When our hearts are turned toward God, then He gives us strength, nourishment and plenty.

The responsorial psalm is Psalm 86, and the refrain is from verse 11: “Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth.” In order for our hearts to be obedient to God, we need to know what pleases Him. We ask Him to teach us His ways so that we know how to please the One who loves us.

In the gospel, Jesus calls Levi, the tax collector, to follow Him and then goes to a great banquet at his house. The scribes and Pharisees were upset that Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, but Jesus responded: “Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do. I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners” (Luke 5:32). Of course, we are all sinners, but only those who realize they are a sinner, only those who are contrite and humble of heart as we saw in Psalm 51, only these please God. So, we have come full circle tonight.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

Eucharistic/Marital Poem

I want to share another poem I wrote as an undergraduate in college; this one is one of the poems I published in the Franciscan University of Steubenville’s literary magazine. I gave no title to this poem:

Bonded by Your Flesh and Blood
My sisters and brothers and I gather together
We—the ring around Your finger
The bride of Your bedchamber
Beam with joy
The beating drums
Within the walls of our temples
Within the enclosure of our ribs
Pound out Your praises
Dancing—we twirl together
Together forever
Forever as one
The ring around Your finger
The bride of Your bedchamber
You are our blood
Your blood is light
Lightning is our blood
Twirling we dance around
Adorned we dance for You
We are the bride of Your bedchamber
The Most High God takes delight
Yes! You delight


Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

Saint John of the Cross

Blessed feast of Saint John of the Cross!

The feast is almost over now that I am sitting down late at night to write. One of the few times I have freedom to write is late at night when my family is in bed. I don't know much about Saint John of the Cross, but what I do know I like. He is a Doctor of the Church and is one of the masters of the spiritual life. Here is a passage from The Spiritual Canticle that deals with spiritual realities. He is giving commentary on a poem and explaining what it means; in stanza 14-15 paragraph 28-29 he says:

28. The Supper that Refreshes and Deepens Love
Supper affords lovers refreshment, satisfaction, and love. Since in this gentle communication the Beloved produces these three benefits in the soul, she calls it "the supper that refreshes, and deepens love."

It should be known that in divine Scripture this term "supper" refers to the divine vision [Rv. 3:20-21]. Just as supper comes at the end of a day's work and the beginning of evening rest, this tranquil knowledge causes the soul to experience a certain end of her evils and the possession of good things in which her love of God is deepened more than before. As a result, he is the supper that refreshes by being the end of evils for her, and deepens love by being to her the possession of all goods.

29. Yet for a better understanding of what this supper is to the soul--it is as we said her Beloved-- we should note in this appropriate place what the beloved Bridegroom says in the Apocalypse: I stand at the door and knock; if anyone opens, I shall enter and we shall sup together [Rv. 3:20]. In this text he indicates that he carries his supper with him, and it is nothing but his very own delights and savors that he himself enjoys. In uniting himself with the soul he imparts them, and she likewise enjoys them. For such is the meaning of the words, "we shall sup together." Hence these words declare the effect of the divine union of the soul with God, in which God's very own goods are graciously and bounteously shared in common with his bride, the soul. He himself is for her the supper that refreshes and deepens love, for in being bounteous he refreshes her, and in being gracious he deepens love in her.


I recommend reading more of Saint John of the Cross; this was just one tiny little bit. I need to read more of it, too. He constantly talks about God as the Bridegroom and our souls as the bride; God seeks to give Himself to us as such. He stands at the door and knocks at each of our hearts. Will you let Him in?

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

No Marriage in Heaven?!

Tonight I want to try and tackle a very difficult passage that sheds light on my theory and vice versa. It is from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians 11: 7-10: “For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. (For man was not made from woman, but woman from man. Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man.) That is why a woman ought to have a veil on her head, because of the angels.” What I want to focus on is that man is the glory of God and woman is the glory of man. The word for glory means, among other things, heavy and full; women have a certain ability to be heavy and full, and that is when they are pregnant, especially in the third trimester. Woman is the glory of man because she bears their fruit. Likewise, man and all mankind is the glory of God because we bear the fruit from God in our trusting heart.

Both men and women bear fruit for God in their hearts; it seems that the man is able to bear fruit for God in a special way, and so he is the glory of God. How are we to correctly understand this? God is pure being and action; He does not receive, but acts and is the Creator of all that is. As the Creator, He reveals many things about Himself in creation. The primary image in all of creation is the relationship between men and women in marriage; this image symbolizes God’s relationship to humanity. Certainly, men and woman have an equality, yet men do symbolize God in a unique manner. Man, in his body and psyche and soul, has a similitude to God, and he seeks to initiate and penetrate and actively give himself. Woman, in her body and psyche and soul, is receptive and nurturing and reciprocates the loving advance. As symbols, man is God and woman is humanity; symbolically man is greater, but not in actuality (the greatest human is a woman, after all). In relation to God, ever human is feminine, that is, receptive. In our relationship with God, it is He who initiates and acts and gives us Himself; we actively respond to His loving entreaty. This is reflected in John’s first letter: “We love, because he first loved us” (4:19). God loves us, and if we are receptive, He fills us with His life; as a result, we are His glory and grow full with good fruit.

A question remains: why do woman have to cover their head due to the angels? Paul is talking about a woman covering her head in church, at the Mass. Do angels really care if a woman’s head is uncovered? Paul says she can either cover her head or shave it; both accomplish the purpose. What is the point? Who are the angels? I do not think Paul is using the word “angel” here literally. Looking to how Jesus uses the word “angel” in the context of marriage sheds light on how Paul uses it here in Corinthians.

The synoptic gospels all have the account where Jesus is rebuking the Sadducees for not believing in the resurrection. Matthew 22:30 says: “For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Mark 12:25 states in almost identical fashion: “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” Luke 20:34-36 gives an expanded version of the first two: “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage; but those who are accounted worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die any more, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.”

In heaven there is no marriage of man to woman. We are not married anymore to our earthly spouse, for we are married only as long as our spouse is alive on earth. In heaven, we are not married, but we are like the angels. In heaven, we will not die, we will be equal to the angels, we will be sons of God and sons of the resurrection. Remember, marriage is a symbol of God’s relationship to man, so when the earthly symbol has served its purpose, then we enjoy the reality: marriage with God. The reason there is no marriage in heaven is that all of us are married to God. He is the one spouse, the one husband, and we are His bride. Sure we will still have a special relationship to all those close to us on earth and all those we helped get to heaven and all those who helped us, especially our favorite saints, but the primary relationship is my marriage to God, my True Spouse. In earthly marriage, each spouse is meant to assist his beloved to heaven, so a close relationship in heaven to our spouse makes sense; we will have a similar closeness to our guardian angel who has been appointed to lead us there, too.

I still haven’t answered the question about who the angels are in Paul’s prohibition of uncovered heads. Real angels are pure spirits in heaven who are united to God; when we get to heaven and are married to God we become like the angels (although we will never be pure spirit; we are embodied spirits); right now on earth the “sons of this age marry and are given in marriage” and so do not live like the angels. The angels, then, are those men who do not marry a human woman but the Church. We call them priests. The celibate life, the Church teaches, is living the heavenly life here on earth. Paul’s concern is quite simple: he doesn’t want the celibate priests to be distracted by the beauty of women in the congregation at Mass. A woman should either cover her beauty or shave her head so that she does not become a temptation to those who live celibate lives. I think that is the point of what Paul is saying. Today, I think Paul would be content that women dress modestly at Mass. It makes sense that everyone comes modestly to Mass so that we decrease the likelihood that we are a distraction to another. It is ironic to accentuate one’s attractiveness when we go to Mass because it is there that Our Husband gives us His Body: he is meant to be our focus and attraction.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.