In The Image of Christ and The Church – Members Content

Revelation 19:6-8
The Wedding of the Lamb

Then I heard what seemed to be
the voice of a great multitude… crying out,“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God the
Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready;
to her it has been granted
to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure” – for the fine linen
is the righteous deeds of the saints.

The Two Shall Become One

When we reflect on how Christ gave himself to the Church, we come to the foot of the Cross where he gave his life for our sake. He allowed his blood to be shed and his body to be broken. His passion and death on the cross was an outpouring of love, a total gift of self. He held nothing back.

Jesus continues to make himself present to the Church in and through the Eucharist. He gives us his body and sheds his blood in the Eucharist; “Take, this is my body given for you. This is my blood poured out for you”. This is why the Eucharist is so significant in the life of the Church – it remembers and makes present to us the passionate love of Jesus. It is the central celebration of our faith.

When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, Jesus’ body and blood is taken into our bodies, where it is digested and incorporated into our own flesh – we literally become ‘one flesh’ with him. That’s why we also call it ‘communion’, because we become one in body and soul with Jesus.

Marriage lives this mystery in a very concrete way. When husband and wife are making love, they are saying with their bodies “Take, this is my body, I give it to you. This is my life-blood poured out for you”. In their sexual union, husband and wife become one flesh, a communion of two in one.

“The expressions referring to care for the body, and above all for its nourishment…suggest … a reference to the Eucharist, with which Christ in his spousal love, ‘feeds’ the church. … these expressions … indicate the specific character of conjugal love, especially of the love by which the spouses become ‘one flesh’.”
TOB, n 92. pg 486

The one flesh union of marriage thus images the relationship between Christ and the Church. This is what it means to be a Sacrament. A sacrament makes visible in the physical dimension an invisible, spiritual reality. Our sexual union is sacramental, making visible and concretely accessible the mystery of self-giving, fruitful love between Jesus and his Body, the Church. We cannot ‘see’ Christ loving the Church, but we can see husbands and wives loving each other. So our love as spouses makes Christ’s invisible love visible to the Church.

A Love of Intimacy

Each of the seven Sacraments in the Church reveal an important dimension of God’s love. In Baptism we become children of God, and we focus on the paternal love of the Father to whom we now belong as his adopted children. Reconciliation reveals God’s merciful nature while Confirmation illuminates the empowering nature of the Holy Spirit. Anointing of the Sick draws our attention to the healing power of God’s love. Communion, Marriage and Priesthood all draw our attention to Jesus’ passionate gift of self. His love for us is spousal in nature. It is a love of intimacy, of urgency, of intimate knowledge, and passionate other-centredness.

Like husbands and wives, Jesus is passionately in love with us; he desires to be one with us. Marriage therefore, is vitally important to the Church and our understanding of God. Without marriage, we can be tempted to focus on the benevolent love of God and overlook the important spousal love, which is intimate and passionate.

The scriptures often refer to Jesus as ‘the bridegroom’. If Jesus is the bridegroom, we are the bride and heaven is the eternal wedding banquet.

Questions for Discussion

• What is your reaction to the idea that you are the beloved ‘spouse’ of Jesus?
• How does this idea impact your attitude towards receiving Communion?
• Write a love letter to each other using the L.I.F.E. framework on the following questions:

For Catholics: How do you feel when you receive Communion?
For a fiancé of a different faith tradition or no faith tradition: How do you feel watching your fiancé receive Communion?