Everyone appears reverent in Church. People make the sign of the Cross, light their offering candles, kiss the icons, and even receive Communion. Everyone looks religious.
You can't fail to notice the reverence. But far too many priests and bishops take it for granted that men and women in our congregations are in a right relationship with God. They mistake reverence for a true relationship with God
Is God looking for reverence in the Church? Does He look upon the outer appearance? No. He looks into our hearts. "God searches the hearts and reins of men." He is looking for hearts that are burning with love for Him in response to the love He has manifested for us
God's infinite and perfect love is not some abstraction. It is not a mere doctrine of faith. It is tangible and visible in the person of His Son Jesus Christ. God was always love. But at one point in history that boundless love became so intense and overwhelming that He sent His only begotten Son into the world. He willed to lift man out of his fallen condition and to restore him to a state of grace. He became a blood offering in behalf of those who would receive Him. He laid down His life as a blood sacrifice upon the Cross of Golgotha
An All-Consuming Love
We are facing here ultimately a love drama. Man and God become related in a love relationship. I will not focus simply on faith and obedience, though these are still required. My primary focus here is the believer's need to strive to cleave unto Christ in an all-consuming love for Him
The backdrop of that truth is Christ's plan to secure an eternal union with his true believers. Many scriptures point to a union with Christ that will last forever in eternity. He is returning to take unto Himself His own so that where He is they shall be, also.
Such an ultimate love union with Jesus is portrayed in the word of God as a conjugal or nuptial union. Too often we forget that the Church, as the Body of Christ, the community of the redeemed is the BRIDE OF CHRIST. Christ is our BRIDEGROOM to Whom we are presently in this lifetime espoused or betrothed. Where there is a Bride and a Bridegroom there is always a wedding. At that point in time, the betrothal ends and the marital union is consummated. The true believer who experiences the conjugal union with the divine Spouse lives day in and day out with a sense of expectation of that blessed event.
"Repentance is like fire through the presence of the Holy Spirit Who enlivens, kindles, sets aglow, and warms the heart and inflames it with eros and desire for
God. Love does not cease; it does not falter but constantly stretches
toward what lies ahead, adding desire to desire and eros to Eros"
St. Symeon the New Theologian, Hymns 27
In the meantime, God provides the grace that deepens and intensifies our nuptial love for our divine Lover. The Father supplies us that supernatural provision by means of the power of the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity woos the heart for a more intimate bonding with the Bridegroom. Like a divine magnet of love, He leads the believer through the stage of preliminary courtship and a romance looking forward to the Celestial Marriage.
Is it any wonder, therefore, that the Spirit and the Bride say, Come! (Revelation 22:17)? You and I don't have it in us to call upon Jesus to come, to return as He promised He would. The longing for His appearance does not originate in the flesh, that is, in our own human capacity. It does not come naturally. It is the Holy Spirit on the inside of us that causes the heart to long to see Jesus return. The Holy Spirit in us says:"Come!" when our lips utter the invitation.
When the flame of longing burns low, it is time to reach out for a greater infilling of the Holy Spirit. We can't work up that longing in our own strength. It is a gift from Him Whose function it is to make us both glorify and love Jesus. He is the heavenly Bond that attaches the heart to the divine Lover.
Divine Eros
I am speaking of a relationship that involves more than mere love - passion for Christ. The Church Fathers often describe it as a divine Eros. St. Symeon the New Theologian, for example, states:"Repentance is like fire through
the presence of the Holy Spirit Who enlivens, kindles, sets aglow, and warms
the heart and inflames it with Eros and desire for God. Love does not cease;
it does not falter but constantly stretches toward what lies ahead, adding desire
to desire and Eros to Eros," Hymns 27.
Therefore, dear reader, if you feel you lack that intimate love relationship with Jesus, your personal Savior, cry out for an infilling of the Holy Spirit. He infuses the believer with a passionate love for the divine Spouse. Get to the position where you can cry out "Come," because you are part of the Bride that longs for the appearance of the Bridegroom. Learn to cleave unto the Lord and become one Spirit with Him, and that is none other than the blessed Holy Spirit.
No Orthodox believer can claim having a relationship with Christ, unless that relationship is experienced within a nuptial framework. It is a meaningless relationship, unless the believer regards Christ as his or her Bridegroom and at the time of prayer addresses Him as "Nymphios", that is, Bridegroom. The believer, on the other hand, regards himself or herself as the Bride and calls the Church the Bride of Christ.
The Holy Week Services of the Bridegroom offer us a special opportunity to remind ourselves of what we Orthodox have forgotten. But is Christ our Bridegroom only during the Week of the Passion? Are we to look at Him as our Bridegroom only at that time of the year?
We can never expect to come into a love relationship with Jesus, unless we live with the constant awareness that God wants to prepare His people to enter into the Bridal Chamber for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. It is a lifetime process. In this light we can truly sing this Holy Week hymn with inner brokenness and a contrite heart. "I see Thy Bridal Chamber adorned. O my Savior, and I have no Wedding garment that I may enter into it. O Giver of Light, make radiant the garment of my soul and save me!"
When we speak to the Lord in conjugal terms we make our relationship with Him truly pleasing to Him. During this courtship stage the Father desires to perfect nuptial love in the Bride, as she waits for the return of her divine Spouse.
A Needed Corrective
This is a needed antidote to the over-institutionalizing of the Church which has made the Church appear as some kind of impersonal secular organization. We have deviated from the authentic ecclesiology of the Scriptures and of the Church Fathers, transforming the Church, the Body of Christ and the Bride of Christ, into some kind of man-centered authoritarian institution.
This is unquestionably the end-time Apostasy doing its pernicious work of banishing Christ out of His church and out of our relationship with God. It is the plan of Satan, the great Usurper, who schemes to usurp the headship of Christ and replace Him with the Antichrist. St. John the Baptist, pointing to Jesus, said: He must increase. I must decrease (John 3:30). But today many Church leaders are saying in effect: "I must increase. He must decrease."
Holy Week comes to remind us that the Church is not a building for worship services, and it is not simply a religious institution. Rather, the Church is the Bride of Christ. Christ is not only the Lamb of God, Savior and Redeemer, but that He is our Bridegroom. We are betrothed to Him and we are preparing for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. We have crystal clear evidence of this truth in the Book of the Revelation:Let us be glad and rejoice,
and give honor to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come and His spouse hath
made herself ready (Revelation 19:7)
By silencing this teaching in the pulpit, too many priests and bishops are in effect betraying Christ. The true nature of Christ and of the Dispensation (economia) of salvation is essentially denied. It is negating the ultimate purpose of the Incarnation, the atoning Sacrifice on the Cross, the Resurrection and Ascension, the final everlasting love union with the glorified Christ in the mystery of the Celestial Marriage.
The message from the pulpit in this last hour should be one of repentance and preparation for entering into the Wedding Chamber.
The Holy Week services, starting with Palm Sunday evening, are called the Services of the Bridegroom (tou Nymphiou). Those penitential worship services remind us of our calling to make ourselves ready to enter into an everlasting nuptial union with Jesus. We have a Wedding invitation. Have you received yours, dear reader? Are you one of the blessed ones? Can you hear our gracious Lord inviting you? Blessed are they who
are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19:9).
The Palm Sunday Phenomenon
On Palm Sunday morning our Churches are usually filled to capacity. We are excited about the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. We all want to be in on that joyous event. But when the sufferings of Jesus begin we are no longer interested. The apathy is unmistakable. Few, if any people attend the Palm Sunday evening Passion service of the Bridegroom.
What a shame so many miss that reenactment of the drama of Christ's suffering! The priest reverently carries the Icon of the Bridegroom, usually adorned with a garland of red carnations, and in a procession around the inside of the Church finally places it on a stand in front of the Soleas and Gate Called Beautiful. During the procession he sings the stirring hymn: "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh
in the middle of the night, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find vigilant,
and again unworthy is the one whom He shall find indolent. Beware, therefore,
O my soul, lest thou be borne down with sleep, lest thou be shut out of the
Kingdom. Wherefore, rouse thyself and cry out: 'Holy, Holy, Holy are Thou, O
God, through the intercessions of the Theotokos save us!'"
Later in the service we exhort one another to love the divine Lover: "Brethren, let us love the Bridegroom, and carefully keep our torches aflame with virtues and the true faith; that, like the wise virgins of the Lord, we may be ready to enter with Him into the Wedding Chamber; for the Bridegroom, as God, bestows a gift on all, the incorruptible crown. "
The
Icon of the Bridegroom
Once our hearts burn with nuptial love for our divine Spouse, then we qualify to go inside the Bridal Chamber. We are urged to prepare by putting on a garment fit for the Marriage Supper. If it is not a Wedding garment, we will be handcuffed and cast
out by the angels, as the Lord cautions in that related parable.
We will be denied entry, if He does not recognize us as intimately related to
Him, and we will hear the painful response, when we knock on the door: I know you not! The Lord is in effect saying: "I don't remember you as a familiar and intimate friend, disciple and companion.
I was a remote figure for you. You were not close to me. I tried many times
to draw you unto myself, but you were not interested. I really do not know you."
Adam got excited when he saw Eve. Jesus, the New Adam, got excited when He saw us, His Bride. He fell head over heals in love with us: Christ loved the Church, and gave Himself for it (Ephesians. 5:25).
At the present time we are in a romance situation, in a love affair. It is a romance between Christ and the Church. We were made for each other. The Holy Spirit is wooing us and makes love for Jesus irresistible. The longer you know Him the
more you are astonished at Him.
St. Paul states: I have espoused
you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ
(2 Corinthians. 11:2).
In the Icon of the Bridegroom Christ does not look like a Spouse prepared for a Wedding. Grooms usually are neatly dressed in the best suit of clothes. How could He possibly be the Bridegroom? He is wearing a crown of thorns. He holds a reed in his hands tied together, designed to mock Him and His claim to be a king. There is blood dripping over His brow. He was just flogged at the whipping post and His back is bleeding.
But such an Icon portrays a mystery. He is the Spouse Who must suffer birth pangs, because He is birthing the members of the new humanity. As the New Adam, He is the progenitor of the new human race. When Adam fell asleep, God took one of his ribs and created Eve. This time the New Adam fell asleep on the Cross, and while His soul was in Hades, the Bride of Christ was birthed.
Glory to Your long-suffering, O Lord! Glory to Thee!
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