2nd Week in Ordinary Time 2024 - Monday - Christ the Bridegroom

 Throughout the Old Testament prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Hosea, as well as in Song of Songs, God reveals the mystery of His desire for union with humanity – a union so intimate that He describes it as spousal love: God is the bridegroom and Israel is the bride.

Despite the infidelity of the people of Israel, God still pursues them with a merciful love. The promise of the bridegroom, however, remained incomplete in the Old Testament.

In the Gospel of John, John the Baptist makes the astonishing claim that Jesus is the Bridegroom—Jesus is God come to earth to unite humanity. John says, “The one who has the bride is the bridegroom… He must increase; I must decrease” 

And in the passage from Mark’s Gospel today, we heard how Jesus identifies himself as the Bridegroom. St. Matthew also reports Jesus’ self-identification as the Bridegroom.

In fact, the Lord also shows that he is the Bridegroom through his deeds. At the wedding at Cana, the wedding party runs out of wine. In Jewish culture it was the groom’s responsibility to provide the wine. And what do we find happening at the wedding at Cana? Jesus miraculously changes jugs of water into an abundance of wine, showing himself to be the long-awaited bridegroom.

Jesus further reveals himself as the bridegroom at the end of his life through the Eucharist and on the Cross. More than a last meal, the Last Supper is a wedding banquet wherein Jesus, like a good husband, offers the total gift of Himself. On the Cross, Jesus consummates this gift and weds himself totally to humanity forever. On the cross, too, his dying breath, in Greek was tetelestai—it is consummated. 

The Church celebrates the Eucharist daily as a memorial of what our Bridegroom has done for us. St. John Paul wrote "The Eucharist is the sacrament of our redemption. It is the sacrament of the Bridegroom and of the Bride." 

Moreover, "the entire Christian life bears the mark of the spousal love of Christ and the Church.” We seek to live upstanding lives, lives full of virtue and grace-- "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband" (Rev 21:2).—that the union we have begun in Christ on earth, may come to its fulfillment in heaven, for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

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To God the Father Almighty we direct the prayers of our heart for the needs and salvation of humanity and the good of His faithful ones.

For the holy Church of God, that the Lord may graciously watch over her and care for her.

For the peoples of the world, that the Lord may graciously preserve harmony among them.

For all who are oppressed by any kind of need, that the Lord may graciously grant them relief.

For ourselves and our own community, that the Lord may graciously receive us as a sacrifice acceptable to himself.

For our beloved dead, for the poor souls in purgatory, and for X, for whom this Mass is offered.

O God, our refuge and our strength, hear the prayers of your Church, for you yourself are the source of all devotion, and grant, we pray, that what we ask in faith we may truly obtain. Through Christ our Lord.