The Consummation of the Wedding Feast of the Lamb

Published by Published on

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The relationship between God and man is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived. This mystery is at once father to son/daughter, builder to built, gardener to plant, and even still spouse to spouse. This marital image, still, does not quite capture the depth at which God draws us to Himself. He, Himself, uses this image in several places the most famous of which is the book of the Songs of Solomon. He calls us "my love, my fair one"(Song of Solomon 2:10). What makes a marriage complete, but its consummation, the final and the surest exchange of persons, the fulfillment of the covenant? It is no wonder that marriage is the first, last, and most frequent topic of the Bible. How does this happen in this relationship?

We can experience God's love in a physical way already here on earth.[1] God reveals Himself foremostly in the "breaking of bread"(cf. John 6, Luke 24:13–32, and Acts 2:42).[2] What is the "breaking of the bread", but the wedding feast of our Beloved (Matthew 22, Revelation 19)? In history, the Church Fathers will tell us it was none other than the Eucharistic feast, where God makes Himself present to His beloved and it is thus we commune with Him by consuming Him.[3] (A pun that is truly divine.) We become one flesh with God, and more explicitly stated, we become Him who became us i.e. Who we were created to be.[4] From this act flows the whole of the Christian life and sacramental economy through which Christ comes to be with us and bring us the blessings of His table (cf. Matthew 15:27).[5] If we are able to partake in such a mystery, we can have "eternal life" within ourselves (John 6:53).

We indeed experience this consummation here on earth but we do not yet experience it perpetually nor in its fullness. Once we are raised from the dead, we shall be made able to enter into a final, complete, and eternal consummation with God or (be) deny(ied) it all together.[6] Rather than brief and often fleeting participation hindered by our corruption, we may if we choose in this life to maintain an imperfect but no less real communion with God, we may one day attain its fullness in the Heavenly Jerusalem.[7]

In conclusion, what do we hold back from our divine spouse? He wants all of his beloved, not just the good, but also what has been corrupted.  We participate in many ways here below in the kingdom of God already, but not yet in its fullest sense. We hope for this fullness not just for ourselves but others as well. How can we resist being gratefully for being a part of the love story? The very purpose of physical existence, with a God who spares not even His Son in the courtship of us. There no narrative more true, good, or beautiful and that encompasses more of reality itself. 

FN:

  1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd ed. (Washington, DC: United States Catholic Conference, 2000), 163, 567
  2. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1336.
  3. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1345.
  4. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1336.
  5. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1323-1327.
  6. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1028, 1720-1724.
  7. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 680.
The poetry for this post lies within its contents.

I am a created entity, not a person.

Most Viewed Posts

Psychological Therapies and Catholic Anthropology: A Comparative Analysis

Published by Published on
Image
Psychological therapy often faces stigma, to the point are some people are skeptical about its value or concerned it contradicts their faith. However, therapy is a powerful tool for addressing mental and emotional struggles, offering healing that goes beyond just the mind. While secular therapies, such as Freud's psychoanalysis, Adlerian therapy, and cognitive behavioral therapy, can provide practical solutions, they often do not fully align with the Christian understanding of the human person. Catholic anthropology, which views humanity as a unified being of body, soul, and spirit in relationship with God, provides a more complete framework for healing. Secular therapies may help with emotional pain, but they typically overlook the spiritual and redemptive dimensions of human life. True healing, from a Catholic perspective, involves recognizing both our current struggles and our ultimate destination in communion with God. As Scripture teaches, authentic freedom is intertwined with...
Click Here to Continue Reading This Post

Law & Virtue: Freedom Refined for True Goodness

Published by Published on
Image
The Seven Virtues, Piero and Antonio Pollaiuolo and Botticelli Depicted from left-to-right: Fortitude ~ Temperance ~ Faith ~ Charity ~ Hope ~ Justice ~ Prudence If you have ever observed a significant amount of rhetoric on any contentious issue, then you would have observed an attempt to frame an objective reality subjectively, some ad hominem attacks, and even some conclusions/premises posed without evidence. This comes largely from the cultural inability to either form arguments or a disbelief in objective reality. However, more fundamentally, there is hardly ever a common definition of freedom. What is freedom, and do we have it? True freedom is the aspect of rational man to choose the good (according to the nature of a thing, in that it is some way desirable and that it has its essence in completeness or in that an action contributes or derives from the completeness of an act, thus an act not completely good is evil and it correspond to an imperfection in the actor and lacks being ...
Click Here to Continue Reading This Post

The Deeply Biblical Celebration: Part 1-The Start of Mass

Published by Published on
Image
The Mass is as old as the Eucharist itself. Extending back arguably to the feeding of the thousands, but definitely and sacramentally, to the Last Supper which is intimately united with Our Lord's Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Therefore/Thereby, the Mass is not only Biblical but is a living and perpetual extenuating of the essential/substantial nature of what scripture is and does. The next few posts will discuss not only the significance of the parts of the Mass and the words they use but also their intensely Biblical roots. In this post, let us look specifically at the first parts of the Mass. The Introductory Rites, as we call them, draw us to be one i.e the One Church, but most importantly one with God, and this movement is deeply scriptural. NOTE: the point of posts like this is to give you a guide to enter in Biblically into this mystery not so much to reveal a mystery but point toward it in a way that will allow the reader to be able to intentionally enter into it in a n...
Click Here to Continue Reading This Post