“God is in love with us and we are His LOVE-DREAM…” — Pope Francis

From the homily of  Pope Francis – Mar. 16, 2015:

“God is in love with us

and we are his love dream,

no theologian  can explain this,

we can only cry out of joy.” 

Note the intimacy of Mary, who in the icon represents the Bride, the Church in Union with her immolated Bridegroom.

In my recent retreat with LOVE CRUCIFIED Community, Father Jordi led us into Brant Pitre’s 2014 book, Jesus the Bridegroom.

Brant Pitre’s teachings tap into the wells of Jewish Scripture and tradition, unlocking the secrets of the cross of Christ.

In this thrilling exploration, Pitre shows how the suffering and death of Jesus was far more than a tragic Roman execution. Instead, the Passion of Christ was the fulfillment of ancient Jewish prophecies of a wedding, when the God of the universe would wed himself to humankind in an everlasting nuptial covenant.

In Ez. 16:4-ff. we see how Yahweh lifts up his people, as He would lift up a castaway girl-child, “weltering in your blood.” He cleanses her, nurtures her to beauty, till she betrays Him with her “whoring with false gods.” Yet God wants to to make of us, His people, a love-dream—a Bride after His own heart.

A New Name for Zion [Isaiah 62:1-5]
1* For Zion’s sake I will not be silent,
for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep still,
Until her vindication shines forth like the dawn
and her salvation like a burning torch.
2  Nations shall behold your vindication,
and all kings your glory;
You shall be called by a new name
bestowed by the mouth of the LORD.
3  You shall be a glorious crown in the hand of the LORD,
a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
4  No more shall you be called “Forsaken,”
nor your land called “Desolate,”
But you shall be called “My Delight is in her,”
and your land “Espoused.”
For the LORD delights in you,
and your land shall be espoused.
5   For as a young man marries a virgin,
your Builder shall marry you;
And as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride
so shall your God rejoice in you.

To see the full intimacy which God expects of His Bride, we must meditate deeply the Canticle of Canticles of Solomon.

“Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth!  More delightful is Your love than wine!       Your name spoken is a spreading perfume–that is why the maidens love you.     Draw me–!    (Canticle 1, 2-4)                    St. Bernard tells us that the “kisses of His mouth” is the Holy Spirit,  the kiss of Union.

“His mouth is sweetness itself;      He is all delight.       Such is my Lover, and such my friend,      O daughters of Jerusalem” (Cant. 5,16).

Even as the Bride seeks the Bridegroom, He searches for her, to enjoy her beauty and purity:  “My Lover has come down to His garden,   to the beds of spice,      To browse in the garden         and to gather lilies.    My lover belongs to me     and I to Him;     He browses among the lilies”           (Cant. 6,2-3).

In the New Covenant, Jesus is our Messiah Bridegroom and the marriage is

– everlasting
– tied to repentance
– tied to reception of the Holy Spirit

In Ezechial 36:27 ff. Yahweh describes how He will give Israel a new heart and place His own spirit within her that she may become faithful and loving—no longer with a stony heart, but with a heart of flesh.

St. John the Baptist, the link between the Old and New Covenant, inaugurates the new Exodus, telling those who follow him: “I am not the Bridegroom,” but that “He must increase, while I decrease.”(John 3:30)

In Jewish tradition, a man may not marry till he has built a home for the bride, and Jesus told us, “I go to prepare a place for you—in my Father’s house are many mansions.” (John 14:3).

Lk. 12:40, Jesus tells us, “I came to cast fire upon the earth,” and tells the critical Pharisees that his disciples do not fast because, “One does not fast when the Bridegroom is present.” (Mark 2:19). We fast on Good Friday because the Bridegroom is taken away from us, His sorrowing Bride.

The twelve apostles represent the 12 tribes of Israel—the unfaithful bride, and through His Cross Jesus teaches his Bride that the essence of marriage is immolation, oblation, which leads to union.

Jesus didn’t just pull us out of our misery, our pit, where we sat “weltering in our blood,” but came to MARRY US.  When we gaze on the Cross, the Eucharist, we should see the Bridegroom.

As in Jewish tradition, in Cana, Jesus fulfilled the role of the groom, providing the best wine. On Calvary, on the Cross, like the traditional Jewish groom, He wears the crown—the only crown Jesus ever wore in His life. Like the groom, He is dressed in the seamless tunic for which the soldiers drew lots.

It is the Holy Spirit who transforms us into the willing, perfect on-fire Bride ready for oblation and union with her Bridegroom. Jesus prayed for union: “I in them and You in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that You sent me and that You loved them even as you loved me” (John 17:23).

At the last supper, Jesus and the apostles left for the Garden of Olives after the third cup, but tradition called for a fourth cup—this would be the cup that he would drink on Golgotha, the last cup of sour wine. In the Garden of Olives, Jesus prayed that the Father would let this cup pass—“yet not My will, but Thine, be done.”

When Jesus said from the Cross, “It is finished,” the correct translation is “IT IS CONSUMMATED,” –the union of the Bridegroom / Messiah and His Bride. (John 19:30).

When His heart is pierced,Blood and Water, the Church, issues from His side, just as Eve issued from Adam’s side. In truth, we have here only one mystery: the Cross / the Eucharist / the Messiah Bridegroom Who immolates Himself for His Bride, the Church. She is born of the wound in his side, His heart.

St. Paul tells us in Eph. 5:25-27: “ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her  to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,  that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

In the last book of the bible, the Book of Revelation, (Rev. 19:7-9) we celebrate the wedding feast of the Lamb: “ 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.”

The Book of Revelation concludes: “The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come!’” (Rev. 22:17).

Our picture of the wedding is the Crucifix, the Bridegroom in the Nuptial Act.

Our entire salvation history, from the Old Testament through the Book of Revelation, is the” love-dream” of our God who is so in love with us that He dreams of us, longs to marry us for all eternity, drawing us from our filth and infidelity, cleansing us, and making us His delight of purity and holiness in the Heart of the Trinity. 

PERFORMED IN JERUSALEM, ISRAEL

[Other icons of Jesus the Bridegroom/Spouse:  http://www.lovecrucified.com/jesus/spouse_icons/icon_spouse_jesus.html ]

[Pope Francis’  entire homily:  http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-make-space-for-gods-love-so-he-can-change-you ]