Praised be Jesus and Mary, now and forever.
In today's Gospel, Jesus identifies himself as the Bridegroom, and when he's questioned about why his disciples aren't fasting, and everyone else is, essentially, he basically says that there's no fasting because they're taking part in a wedding right now.
So not only is Jesus the Bridegroom, but he compares his public ministry to a wedding ceremony of all things.
So we're going to look at today a little bit about how we understand Jesus as the Bridegroom.
In the Old Testament, the covenant that God had made with his people on Mount Sinai, that covenant was considered a marriage covenant, essentially a divine wedding.
God was the Bridegroom, Israel was his Bride.
A covenant was a family bond between persons that established them in a permanent and in a sacred relationship.
And the Lord said to his people through the prophets, he said, I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in the land not sown, Jeremiah 2, verses 1 and 2, and then in Ezekiel, he said, I pledged myself to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord, and you became mine, Ezekiel 16, verse 8.
That's marriage language, essentially what our Lord is saying in those two prophets.
This is why every sin against the commandments, both now and then, every sin is not just an offense to God; every sin is actually undermining your own marriage when you think about it.
It's betraying your covenant with God.
Every sin is a form of adultery in that respect.
In the Old Testament, God's relationship with his people was described of in many ways, like a broken marriage, a marriage shattered by constant infidelity on the part of his bride, not too much different nowadays.
But in the Old Testament, God didn't abandon his people because of their infidelity, instead through the prophets, he promised a new marriage covenant with them, covenant tied to the forgiveness, of their sins, a covenant in which he would shower them with steadfast love, with compassion, with faithfulness, and for the Old Testament prophets, salvation wasn't just about the forgiveness of sins, salvation is ultimately about union with God, a union in which the bridegroom and his bride know each other intimately, a union in which they have a marriage which is faithful, fruitful, and everlasting as well.
The words of one ancient Jewish text, an extra-biblical text, this is outside the scripture, said this, it said, this world is like a betrothal, for it says, and I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, quoting Hosea 2 verse 20.
The actual marriage ceremony will take place in the days of the Messiah, as it says, for thy maker is thy husband, there quoting from Isaiah 54 verse 4.
So when John the Baptist in the New Testament points to Jesus, calls him the bridegroom in John 3 verse 29, he's identifying Jesus not only as the Messiah, he's actually identifying Jesus as God, who's come to establish that new covenant, a new spousal relationship, and the new spousal relationship is not only going to be with the people of Israel, it'll also include the people excluded from the old covenant, it'll also include all the Gentiles as well, and we can certainly thank God for that when we think about it.
There are a few episodes in our Lord's ministry, which highlight this reality of Him being the divine bridegroom. We'll mention a few of those here.
First one is the wedding feast at Cana, where Jesus performs His first miracle.
In ancient Israel, it was actually the bridegroom's job to provide wine for the wedding.
So when Our Lady at the wedding turns to her son and says they have no wine, John 2 verse 3, she's not only asking Jesus for a miracle, she's asking Him to assume the role of the Jewish bridegroom.
Essentially inviting Him to reveal Himself as the divine bridegroom.
And in the Jewish scriptures, one of the marks of the future age of salvation, so one of the marks of the messianic age, was that it would be characterized by what was called superabundant wine.
We read that in the prophets, for example.
Amos chapter 9 verses 11 and 13, Joel chapter 3 verse 18.
This is one of the reasons why Jesus provides upwards of 180 gallons of wine at the miracle of Cana.
Because He comes to bring superabundant wine for those who are estranged from God.
For those who are estranged from their spouse, essentially.
In that Cana, when Our Lord says to Our Lady, My hour has not yet come, John 2 verse 4, He's telling her that the time for Him to provide the wine for His own wedding banquet isn't right then, but it will be won at the Last Supper.
When Jesus tells His disciples, and we hear this at every Mass, right?
Take this all of you and drink from it, for this chalice is the new covenant in My blood.
Matthew 26 and 1 Corinthians 11:25.
So just as the Lord God wedded Himself to the 12 tribes of Israel on Mount Sinai through the blood of the covenant and then had a feast afterward.
So now Jesus weds Himself to the 12 apostles and through them to the new people of God.
He weds Himself to us at the Last Supper through the blood of the new covenant, which is sealed in His own blood.
Jesus will also provide the new wine for His wedding where?
On the cross, essentially.
The moment when He actually pours out His blood for our salvation.
So where else in the New Testament will we see Jesus as the bridegroom?
How about His encounter with the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman, John chapter 4.
In the Old Testament with the patriarchs, we heard about one of them, two of them in today's first reading, with the patriarchs, with Moses, with Abraham's son Isaac, with Jacob.
All of them were male foreigners who met a woman at a well, and they became betrothed to those women, actually.
Jesus here in John chapter 4, a non-Samaritan meets a Samaritan woman in her own country at Jacob's well, strikes up a conversation with her.
It's one of the reasons why the disciples were a bit surprised when He was talking with her.
So the reality of ancient betrothals at wells would have been very familiar to them as first-century Jews.
And what does Jesus say to her?
He promises the Samaritan living water.
We understand that as the Holy Spirit, and we're correct to understand that.
But the expression living water was also associated with the custom of a Jewish bride undergoing a ritual bath before her wedding.
Actually, it was that same expression, living water.
Before her wedding, she would be bathed in living water, and that's the betrothal gift that Jesus offers to that woman in Samaria.
He offered her living water that will both cleanse her sins from the past and also prepare her for the everlasting wedding feast of eternal life.
And so we ask, where does and when does Jesus provide that water that He's going to use to wash His bride?
The answer is similar to what we said before.
He provides it at the cross, where St. John says His heart is pierced and where blood and water flow out of His side, John 19, 34.
And we also know blood and water to be symbols of the sacraments of the Church.
Blood, the Eucharist, water, baptism.
Jesus had even said early in the Gospel of John, He had said, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink.
He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, said, Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.
Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water, John 7, verses 37 and 38.
From whose heart?
Jesus' heart.
From the pierced heart of Calvary.
And if Jesus is the bridegroom, next logical question might be to ask, well, when is His wedding day?
It was the same day, the day of His death, actually, the day of His crucifixion.
His crucifixion was His marriage.
In today's Gospel, we heard our Lord say, The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away, and then the wedding guests will fast, He said.
Matthew 9:15.
In the ancient Jewish wedding celebration, which lasted a week, the seventh day was the night of consummation.
On that night, the bridegroom would leave his friends and family and enter into what was known as the bridal chamber in order to be united with his bride, not to come out until morning, the next morning as well.
And believe it or not, the bridal chamber for ancient Jews was actually designed to resemble the tabernacle of Moses.
It looked like a little tabernacle of Moses, the tabernacle that He had set up in the wilderness, essentially a replica.
So just as God consummated His marriage to Israel in the tabernacle of Moses through the blood of the covenant, so too Jesus consummated the marriage to His bride through the blood of His cross.
This is why St. Augustine calls the cross the marriage bed of Jesus.
He says, there, ascending it, He consummated a marriage, says St. Augustine.
And then what happens after the crucifixion?
Well, our Lord goes away for a short while.
He's essentially buried in the tomb.
Then He rises again.
If you want to borrow from Psalm 19:5, He rises again like a bridegroom coming out of His bridal chamber, says the psalm.
Then He goes away again.
He ascends into heaven after 40 days.
Why is Jesus the bridegroom?
Why does He ascend into heaven?
Why did He leave His bride on earth?
Why am I left down here, right?
Well, the ancient Jewish custom said that one of the duties of the bridegroom was to prepare a home for his bride so that when the wedding was finally consummated, He would take her from her own family and bring her to live with Him and to be a part of His family in His Father's house.
Ancient Jewish custom.
So the first century Judaism, it was the duty of the bridegroom to go and prepare a place for His bride so they could both dwell there after their marriage.
Does any of that sound familiar from the Gospel of John?
Well, Jesus said that the disciples at the Last Supper, He said, in My Father's house, there are many rooms or mansions.
If it were not so, I would have told you that I go, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
And when I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself so that where I am, you may also be.
John 14, verses 2 through 3.
Again, that's essentially wedding language is what our Lord is sharing with the disciples at the Last Supper.
Okay, do we see our Lord as the bridegroom anywhere else in the New Testament?
And we'll finish with this, I think.
How about at the Apocalypse, the book of the Apocalypse, known as the book of Revelation as well.
The Apocalypse is not just about basically the catastrophic destruction of the whole universe.
That's partly in there too, right?
The word Apocalypse in Greek literally means unveiling.
That's what it means.
The unveiling of what?
The unveiling of the bride.
The bride of the divine bridegroom.
The bride of Christ, essentially.
The culmination, the end of the book of Revelation is all about unveiling Christ's bride who's finally been made ready for her spouse.
So we ask, well, why hasn't the world ended yet?
Why hasn't Jesus come again?
What's He waiting for?
Doesn't He see all the bad things around here?
He does.
Why is He waiting?
Very simply, His bride's not ready.
We wanna put it in biblical language.
When His bride, the Church, is ready, then He'll come for her.
The bride of Christ in Revelation is also referred to as the new Jerusalem.
She's called the new Israel, the new temple of God, the new garden of Eden.
So just as the Bible begins with the wedding of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, watered by four rivers, it says in the book of Genesis, Genesis two and three, so too the Bible ends with the wedding of Jesus, the bridegroom, and the Church, His bride, in a new Eden, this time watered by the supernatural river of life, which we read at the end of the book of Revelation, Revelation 22, verse one.
And truly, lastly, I think we should be able to answer this question by now.
Why does Jesus say in the Gospels that in heaven, there's no marrying and no giving in marriage?
Why does He say that?
Luke 20, verses 34 through 36.
Because in heaven, our Lord will be our spouse.
Heaven is the earthly marriage of the Lamb.
It's the marriage of Him with His bride, and it's the most perfect, by far the happiest marriage ever imaginable.
Far more beautiful and wonderful than anything we could possibly imagine.
If you wanna read more about Jesus, the bridegroom, I would recommend Dr. Brent Petrie's book, Jesus, the Bridegroom.
Essentially, this homily is a very condensed summary of that book.
If you're the romantic type, then I suggest you read it.
I think you'll like it a lot.
It'll help you to grow closer to our Lord, too.
So let's ask Our Lady for the grace to embrace our baptismal espousal to God.
Let's ask Her for the grace to not undermine our spiritual marriage anymore through sin, but rather to live with the grace and with the joy and with the love of one who knows that they're truly loved by God and espoused to Him as we are.
Praised be Jesus and Mary …

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