Eucharist as Wedding Feast - 3 Mystical Marriage by Ernest Falardeau, SSS, Associate Editor Printed in Emmanuel Magazine, June 2001

Introduction The fathers of the church, especially in their commentaries on the Song of Songs, move from the metaphor of the Wedding Feast of God with his people to the relationship between God and the individual soul. St. John of the Cross in his Canticle draws the same picture. John of the Cross, St., The Spiritual Canticle in Collected Works...Transl. By Kieran Kavanaugh, OCD and Otilio Rodriguez, OCD. Washington: ICS Publ., 1979, p 393-568. The covenant relationship between God and his people is concretized and personalized in each persons relationship to God in Christ. St. Johns Discourse on the Bread of Life (Jn 6:22-59) would refer to this reality. Just as Christ has life from the Father, so the one who eats his body and drinks his blood, shares in the divine and eternal life of the Risen Lord. A Loving Relationship The Eucharist is a wedding feast, because it is a loving communion with Jesus Christ, the Risen Lord. The purpose of eucharistic communion is a deeper and more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. In the final analysis, this union with Christ is at the very heart of the Christian life. St. Paul speaks of it often: For me to live is Christ...it is no longer I who live, it is Christ who lives in me... (Phil 1:21; Gal 2:20) Gregory of Nyssa, in his commentary on the Song of Songs waxes eloquent about this relationship and invites his readers to find it in the deeper meaning of the Scriptures: ...that she was as far from arriving at perfection as those who had not yet made a beginning....I indeed [says she] laid hold on love for the One I desire, but the object of my love has flown from the net of my thoughts....I was calling him by name, as far as I was able to discover names for the Nameless, but there was no name whose sense could attain the One I was seeking. Gregory of Nyssa, Homily 6 (GNO VI:180 as quoted by Richard A. Norris, The Soul Takes Flight: Gregory of Nyssa and the Song of Songs, The Anglican 25 (1996) no. 2, p.20 (October). In our search for God, we find him in Jesus Christ, his Son and the love of the Trinity. We follow the lead and direction of the Holy Spirit who is poured out in the Eucharist, the Bread of Life by which we share in the life of the Father. The Word was made flesh that we might have eternal life. And the Bread of Life gives us that life in abundance. It is bread broken and wine poured out. It is the body of Christ and his blood given for the life of the world. At some point in the ascent of Gods mountain the bridegroom beckons to the bride to come and feast. Wisdom prepares a banquet of choice morsels and fine wines (Prov 9:2). This banquet is a foretaste of the banquet of heaven. It is the banquet of the Eucharist -

sign and symbol of Gods love for each of us. Sign and symbol of the love of Jesus Christ who lay down his life that we might live, who shares his life with us as we hear his word and share his bread of life and cup of salvation. Contemplation St. Peter Julian Eymard spoke of an acquired contemplation. Peter Julian Eymard, St. Constitutions of the Congregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament, St. Meinrad, IN, The Abbey Press, 1959, no. 17: The best way of adoring Our Lord, however, is that which the Holy Ghost inspires and fosters in a humble and upright heart. Let each one, therefore, be attentive to his own special grace and, as one called to the better part with Mary, advance in recollection and in the virtue of holy love at the feet of the Lord. A soul that is diligent in following the Holy Spirit will eventually come to a point in its spiritual journey when it will rest in the Lord. Realizing the futility of concepts and words, a person eventually rests in Gods love and in the ineffable groans of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit prays in us as in a temple. We pray in him as the very substance of Gods love in the Trinity. The mystics, especially Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross speak of an even deeper mysticism, but that contemplation is Gods pure gift. It is not something of our doing or meriting. It is Gods to give or withhold. But the terms and metaphors that are used are those of the Scriptures, of mystical marriage, of bride and groom. Teresa of Avila, St., The Life of Teresa of Jesus: The Autobiography of St. Teresa of Avila, ed. by E. Allison Peers, Garden City, NY: Image Books, 1960. John of the Cross, St. op. cit. We can only give God praise and thanks for the mystics who have told us about this experience, still we can appreciate it as an insight into Gods dealings with each of us. The infinity of Gods love and the longing response, the yearning in each of us, is something we share in common. An elderly priest now deceased, once told me, virtually in tears, of his longing for God and heaven. Another told me with simple gratitude that he felt his life was complete and that he awaited death with great serenity and hope. They were prepared for the banquet. The Eucharist had done its work. Jesus Christ was at the center of their lives. They longed to see their friend face to face. They had contemplated him in the eucharistic sacrifice and in hours of eucharistic prayer. Now they longed to see him endlessly in realms of clearer light. Marty Haugen, We Walk By Faith, verse 4. Wedding Feast Can we recall the joy we have experienced at weddings? I remember my very first memory of this kind, when my aunt and uncle were married. We had ice cream (a rare treat in the 1930's) and all kinds of wonderful food. Everyone was dressed for the occasion. The family was being extended another time. We welcomed new members and looked forward to more cousins to share our life and our joy. A wedding feast is about joy and food and relationships. As a priest, I have shared many weddings, rehearsal dinners and wedding receptions. They are among the most joyful moments of family life. A priest shares these moments among his people. As a counselor and confidant, he helps couples to celebrate an important decision in their lives, and to mark its sacred and solemn moments. Often a life-time bond is established in the process. And the spirit of the occasion is always remembered. In the Catholic rite, marriages are celebrated at a Eucharist. In the Orthodox understanding of marriage, it involves the stephanosis (blessing of the crowns and crowning of the bride and broom) in the context

of the Eucharist. In the Orthodox rite (and in many Eastern Catholic rites) the epiclesis (prayer to the Holy Spirit) in the sacrament of marriage is much like the epiclesis of the Eucharist. The Holy Spirit unites bride and groom, just as the Holy Spirit transforms the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ. Marriage is related to the body of Christ which is the church, hence the invoking of the Holy Spirit. Ecclesia Domestica It should be no surprise, therefore, that the family is considered the ecclesia domestica the domestic church, the church of the home. John Paul II, Pope, Familiaris Consortio #21. If the church is the body of Christ, then the family is the body of Christ in the home. We begin to grasp the profound insight of St. Paul as he wrote to the Ephesians that the love of husband and wife is the mystery the sacred sign and profound revelation of the love of Christ for the church (Eph 5:32). There was a time, in the early church, when there were only domestic churches, Vincent P. Branick, The House Church in the Writings of Paul, (Zacchaeus Studies: New Testament), Wilmington, DE: M. Glazier, 1989. i.e. when Christians gathered in the homes of prominent members. There is something about the intimacy and conviviality - the joy and sharing - of that time that needs to be recaptured today. Konrad Raiser, Opening Up Ecumenical Space, Address at the International Meeting of Interchurch Families at the Ecumenical Centre, Geneva (Switzland), July 25, 1998. The hospitality and the love of Christians and their care for each other should underlie even our most solemn liturgies. Many of our Protestant brothers and sisters have recovered in many ways, some of these dimensions of the Eucharist in their liturgy. Interchurch Families We cannot resist a reference to interchurch families who sense the ecclesia domestica very deeply. They especially sense the division of the church in their daily lives. The church is one but divided. This reality is experienced in the daily life and prayer of the family. It is especially acute as the interchurch family gathers for Eucharist each Sunday. There is always a feeling of something missing. There is a unity that is the object of prayer and hope, but is not yet fully realized. They think of Christs prayer for unity, and how closely related it is to his gift of the Eucharist. That they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me(Jn 17:21). This conscious need for the Eucharist to become a full sign of unity among Christians is something for all of us. Interchurch couples feel the divisions more acutely. But they also experience the hope and the possibility of unity. They model for us a world yet to come, a prayer yet to be answered, a reality yet to be achieved. In Christ Paul experienced the love of Christ for him. It compelled him to return Christs love in a life poured out in ministry and self-sacrifice. Love is nourished by Gods word, and by the love of Christ. Pauls life was ever in Christ and with him. For me to live is Christ (Phil 1:21) Paul reached the heights of mystical union with Christ. He experienced in his body the brand marks of Christ (Gal 6:17). Like Francis of Assisi, he was raised to the heights of mystical experience and contemplation (2Cor 12:2). This is something beyond our experience, but it is not beyond our admiration. Through the mystics we glimpse some

sense of the breadth and length and height and depth, and know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled with all the fullness of God (Eph 3:1819). Our modest task is to imitate their example. Our prayer is that we might share the masters table. Our hope is that some day we will share with them the eternal and everlasting banquet of heaven, a feast for a king, a feast for those who follow the Lamb, a wedding feast to which we are all invited. The only condition of admittance is that we are clothed with Christ as the wedding garment (Mt. 22:11-12).